Torn
by RockeTehFlash
Summary: Percy, Thalia and Nico move in together, and transfer to the same school, meeting new friends and enemies. Everything goes well until a certain grey-eyed girl comes along. Love, drama, passion, fighting, whose life will be affected next? Whose reality is about to be torn? Percabeth(starts off rough) and other ships. Potential OC, not sure yet. T for future Language.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hi. I like to start stories, and probably never finish them, but let's try! Welcome to Torn! I will start by saying that this first chapter is a little slower, but it's mainly to introduce some characters before I start with actual Percabeth stuff. It's also a tad bit long, but I love longer fic's, so I have no regrets. Most chapters will be close to the same length, but with probably be switching between characters. Seeing stuff through Percy's eyes on this first chapter is a must though. But yea, let's hop right in!**

 **PERCY**

We walked in the front gate and I instantly wished I was back in my bed. Today was the first day of high school and I was already bored.

"C'mon, dork!" my cousin Thalia screamed at me. Thalia Grace has spiky black hair, is around 5'4, and is constantly threatening to cut me. If looks could kill, her lightning blue eyes would do the trick. She says it's how she was born, I say it's all the metal music she listens to. She wore a black hoodie, black jeans, and black combat boots. She was dragging me along to meet her friends. Mind you, we just transferred to this school, so I have no idea where these friends came from

"Leave him alone, Thals," my other cousin Nico countered, "we just got here, how do you even know where your friends are?" Nico Di Angelo was a year younger than us, but he was in the same grade as us. His sister, Bianca, is even smarter than he is. It's a little weird. Nico also had onyx black hair, is a little taller than Thalia, maybe 5'5, and we all think he is emo. His dark brown eyes don't help that fact either. He was wearing a black zip-up, black sweats, and black running shoes.

Though they are kinda crazy, they're family you know? We've always been close.

"Best friend intuition," Thalia stated matter of factly, "that, and I texted them." She held up her phone giving Nico a 'duh' face.

"Can I at least go to my locker first?" I whined. Not that I couldn't carry my bag, it was just heavy you know? Useless weight… Stupid books.

"No, Percy," Thalia said, looking at me like I was stupid, "You are going to meet my friends, and then you can be free."

Before we continue, my name is Percy Jackson. I had messy black hair, green eyes, and was around 5'10. I play guitar, piano, I can sing, and can swim. I also love the ocean and fish. I was I'm also dyslexic and have ADHD, but that's beside the point. I was wearing a blue pullover, black sweats, and a pair of black running shoes. Other than that, I'm an open book. No, not an open book, books are boring, I'm awesome.

The three of us have been living together for the past year because our fathers decided that 1, we get in too much trouble alone, 2, it'd be good for us to watch each other's back, and 3, they could keep an eye on us. We got pretty much anything we wanted because they moved us into a huge mansion and gave us all hefty debit cards, but we didn't really like to use their money. They weren't there when we were younger, so not using their cash to move ahead feels like we have some power, you know? We make our money on the side, doing off jobs, or doing what we love. I played music Where was I going with this? Oh, yea.

I looked at both my cousins and realized that we could pass as a family. Well, we are family, but I mean like brothers and sisters. I guess the only different things we had were our eyes… and taste in music… and hobbies... and-

"Kelp head, focus," Thalia looking at me pointedly. I snapped out of my thoughts and gave her a sheepish grin, scratching the back of my head.

We walked for what felt like 2 minutes before I heard Thalia squeal. Thalia _never_ squeals, and I've known her for my entire life.

All of a sudden, a blonde blur clashes with black, like a tiger attacking a jaguar. Looking Closer, I notice that the "blonde blur" is actually a blonde girl, and not gonna lie, she's pretty cute. She was wearing an orange t-shirt, blue jeans, and a pair of white Converse.

"Thalia!" the girl exclaimed, "It's been so long!"

"It has, hasn't it, Annie?" Thalia said happily. The girls' smile dropped and she glared at Thalia. I don't know how much she knew Thals, but you don't challenge her to a glare off.

"Don't call me Annie!" said Annie. I don't know her name, so it'll stick for now.

"Yea yea, whatever," Thalia said, brushing her off, laughing. A moment later "Annie" joined her. I was beyond confused. If I did that, Thalia would castrate me.

The new girl looked at us with a smile. It looked pleasant, but it felt calculating as if she was studying us while we spoke. One wrong word, or phrase, and we meant nothing to her. Nico and I smiled back.

"Hi, I'm Annabeth Chase, you must be Thalia's cousins," the new self-named Annabeth said.

"Yo, my names Nico Di Angelo," Nico went first, "and despite what these two nimrods say, I'm not emo."

"I understand, people sometimes think I'm just another 'stupid blonde."

The two laughed a little after that, then she looked at me. It wasn't till now I realized she had grey eyes. It threw me off for a second. And for a second too long, because Nico elbowed me in the side because I was staring.

"Sorry," I said while slightly blushing, praying Annabeth didn't notice, "Hi, I'm Percy, and I like to swim, and play guitar."

"I see," she said, "I always wanted to learn how to play but never had the chance."

"I can teach you if you want," I offered with a smile, "It's not that hard, and I've taught Nico, though he decided he liked to play bass more." Nico and Thalia were snickering in the background at this, though I'm not sure why.

"Maybe, we'll see," she said, still looking as if she was trying to break me down like a chemical equation.

Thalia cleared her throat. "As much as it sucks, we gotta head to class," Thalia says glumly. I looked at Thalia and Nico's schedule when we got them, so I knew I shared Math with Nico, and chemistry with Thalia -god help me. My first class, however, was PE. My schedule went PE, Math, Chemistry, English, History, Sword fighting (cool school, right?), then Choir.

I headed to the gym where a stocky man stood with a baseball bat. He looked about 5'5, and I didn't think I wanted to be on his bad side. "Listen up Cupcakes," he started, already sounding annoyed, "My name is Coach Hedge, and I teach about every sport we have here at Goode. Normally, we'd be doing PE right now, but I have to explain what this class is and yada yada. If you're looking to sign up for a team sport, we have try-outs today. Swimming meets by the pool at 2:30, track at the track at 4:30, and all other sports are tomorrow."

I pulled out my phone and wrote a reminder to go to tryouts today. While waiting for class to be over, I was going through my Instagram, looking at fail videos, I heard someone come to sit next to me. I looked up and saw two guys, both looking equally odd.

Guy number one looked like a blonde superman, and the other a Spanish elf.

"Uh, hi?" I say curiously.

"Hola mi amigo," the elf says with a crazy grin, "My names Leo, and blondie here is Jason."

"Percy," I said with a smile. Leo was short, probably a tad smaller than Thalia, had crazy black hair and a fire in his eyes. I liked him. Jason was around my height, had a small scar on his lip, glasses, and looked built as if he played football.

"Nice to meet you man," Jason said with a warm smile, "Mind if we sit with you? Wanted to meet someone new this year and you seemed chill."

I chuckled at this, as I was anything but chill. "If you call have ADHD chill, then sure dude. Though I do warn you, bad luck follows me like a lost puppy."

"Me too!" Leo exclaimed, earning a few looks from the surrounding kids.

"Leo, shut up! People are staring!" Jason said with an annoyed look.

Leo looked around and gave his best flirtatious grin he could muster, and very cool-ly said "Sup, ladies." Normally, this would have had girls swooning. Leo's voice was smooth, and energetic, it showed excitement. But this time, it was anything but normal. In the middle of him saying "ladies," his voice cracked, and raised two octaves. This got a laugh out of everyone in the gym, including myself. Leo looked embarrassed, but it quickly washed away and he started laughing too.

I looked at Leo with a wide grin and tears in my eyes. "Leo, what compels you to do these things?"

"I dunno," he said shrugging, "Someone has to be awesomely funny, why not me?"

This made us all laugh, and we began to talk about ourselves. Leo apparently was in Woodshop and metalworking for his electives and was great in math. He had a white V-neck on, jeans that looked like they were once blue, some work boots, and a tool belt. He was also a pyromaniac. Jason was a straight-A student who played football (I knew it!) and loved to play the drums. He had on a white sweater with two black bands on the sleeve, black joggers, and black high-top converse. We exchanged numbers and said we'd hang out over the weekend.

"And then my brother, Beck, he was covered in soot, it was gr-" Leo was finishing, but was interrupted. A girl had come up with long black hair, wearing what looked like all designer clothes, and I couldn't describe it if I tried. **(AN: I just don't know enough designer clothes, I wear parkour clothes lmao)**

The girl cleared her throat and we all looked at her, but she was only looking at me. Leo was smitten, Jason looked up with a friendly smile, but I could tell it was just that, friendly. I looked up with a confused look on my face.

"Hiya, I'm Percy," I say kindly, yet still confused as to why she came up to us.

"Drew Tanaka," she started with a sly grin, "but I guess you could call me any time."

Jason snorted, covering his mouth, Leo was still smitten, and I thought she was being friendly.

"Oh, sure," I said, pulling out a pen and piece of paper to write my number down, "Here's my number."

"Thanks," she said with a wink, "I'll call you later, Eye-candy." And with that, she walked away in what looked like 4-inch heels. _That looks painful_.

"Dude," Jason looked at me in disbelief, "did you really just get hit on by Drew Tanaka, and give her your phone number?"

I looked at him with my eyebrow raised. "She wasn't hitting on me, she just wanted to trade numbers. For homework and stuff."

Jason scoffed with an even more unbelieving look. "Percy, its PE."

"And?" I really didn't get the point he was trying to make.

"We don't _have_ homework for PE."

"... Oh…"

Jason facepalmed and laughed, and I joined him, though laughing more nervously. We looked at Leo and he was still in a trance. I flicked his head and he jumped into action.

"Hola mamasita, my names Leo Valdez, and I-" he said, stopping midway, realizing that Drew was gone and that he was trying to put the moves on me.

Jason and I were rolling on the floor laughing. Leo looked even more embarrassed than ever. After about 5 minutes, we had calmed down and started talking like normal again.

Leo had just told us about his plans to build a crazy ship named the Argo II when the bell rang. We picked up our stuff and started walking, talking about plans for when we got home when we got to my class.

"This is my next class, math, or should I say hell?" I joke, waving goodbye to my new-found friends. I walked into Math and was greeted by a fairly boring looking class. The walls were bland, and the teacher just looked angry. I saw Nico in the back and decided to sit next to him.

"How was your first class?" I ask, not bothering to pull out a notebook. Nico would help me later, why take notes?

"Eh, it was alright," he says looking bored. _I understand that feeling wholeheartedly._

"Yea, I gotcha," I say in agreement. Class starts and ends slowly. The most eventful thing was the teacher, Ms. Dodd's, yelling at Nico for falling asleep. I couldn't blame him though, math sucked, and he was a genius.

My next class was science. I walked in to see Thalia talking to Jason.

I walked up and pat him on the back. "Hey," I start excitedly, "I didn't know you had this class, Jason!'

'Jason' turned and looked at me. It wasn't until he turned around that I saw that it wasn't Jason at all. Where Jason had a scar on his lip, this guy had a scar next to his eye, and instead of sparky blue eyes, I was met with cold, icy ones.

"Uh, the names not Jason, but what's up?" he said with a small smile. Thalia started laughing and I instantly felt myself grow red with embarrassment.

"Heh, sorry," I said, feeling ridiculous, "My name's Percy."

"Luke, and it's nice to meet you. I'm gonna go, Thalia, talk to you later?"

Thalia nodded and Luke waved goodbye, walking out of the classroom. I'm not sure why, but Luke put me on edge.

I look at Thalia with a sly grin. "Soooooo," I start, "who's Luke?"

Thalia flushes and gives me a glare. After seeing Thals blush, I deemed that maybe death wouldn't be such a bad thing.

"I met him in my last class," she says, annoyed, "Also known as 'None of your business.'"

I give her a light laugh, but she holds her glare strong. Death was becoming less and less inviting.

"I'm just pulling your leg, Pinecone face," I tease, calling her by her least favorite nickname, "It isn't every day my dear old cousin finds someone she likes."

Thalia grumbled and put her head between her arms, looking at the board. Science, much like math, went by pretty slowly. On the plus side, Thalia didn't blow anything up, so that was nice.

We left the class and talked about how boring school had been. We had laughed about some stupid joke when we heard someone yelling.

"Get off, Ethan!" what sounded like a girl's voice exclaimed. It sounded familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

"Don't be like that," said who I'm assuming was Ethan, "You know you want me."

Thalia and I looked at each other and had a split-second telepathic conversation.

 _Should we...?_ I thought

 _Yep, why is it always us?_ She thought back. I don't know if she really thought that, but she did in my imagination.

We took off towards the yelling, sprinting full speed to try and stop whatever was happening.

When we got there, we saw a guy with an eye patch, again I think it was Ethan, I could be wrong though, pushing a girl against a wall. The girl had long curly red hair with a beanie on, a green and black flannel, black skinny jeans, and a pair of Converse.

"Hey!" I yell, getting Ethan's attention, "get off of her!"

Ethan grunted and glared at me. "Mind your own business."

Thalia goes up to him and pulls his shoulder, effectively ripping him off of the redhead.

"I know you don't see things like we do, 'Eye patch,'" Thalia taunted, "but to everyone else, no means no!"

Ethan roared at this and charged Thalia. To anyone else, it would be scary to see a 6-foot tall dude, who looked like he played basketball, charge at a girl who was 5'5. To me, it was a typical school year with Thalia.

Ethan tried to jab at Thalia, but she blocked his punch and swiped his leg out from under him, making him fall into the splits, ending the fight.

Thalia straightened out her hoodie, looking confident as ever. "Huh, thought that would have been harder." She then pushed him back so his legs could go back to being straight, but the damage was done. Thalia grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and gave him a death glare.

"I see you messing with another girl again and you're dead," she said, dripping with anger, "Got it?"

Ethan nodded quickly then limped off.

I turned my attention back to the girl. "Hey, you alright?"

She looked at me and was a deep red. _Maybe she's sick? Who would pick on a sick girl?_ I thought.

"Y-yea, I'm fine," she started, taking my hand as I helped her up, "Thanks for that. My names Rachel Elizabeth Dare, but everyone here just calls me R.E.D."

"I'm Percy," I say with a warm smile, "no problem, why was - Ethan right? - Ethan acting like that?"

"He's an ex and we didn't break off on good terms," she said, looking kinda sad.

"Ex or not, he better watch it," Thalia starts, joining in the conversation, "Thalia, nice to meet you."

"You guys really don't need to go through the trouble," she tried, "Ethan usually backs off for a while after the second time I tell him no."

I frowned and crinkled my eyebrows. "There shouldn't need to _be_ a second time though."

"Yea, well, what are you gonna do?"

I looked down and realized that there were a bunch of drawings scattered on the floor. I picked them up and sifted through a few of them. I saw symbols like a trident, a skull, a lightning bolt, a flame, an owl, and a few more, but I didn't pay too much attention. Some of them were really in detail though. One was what looked like a hill at a camp that Thalia Nico and I would go to over the summer and train at. It was a really inclusive place where they had sword fighting, and archery and stuff. I thought it was awesome. I missed it though. Maybe I'll visit next weekend.

"Hey," I start while still looking through the pictures, "These are really good."

"Thank you," she said, blushing again, "I have these really vivid pictures in my head and like to draw them."

The minute bell rang a right after Thalia finished.

"Oh shoot, I gotta go," Rachel starts, picking up all of her stuff, "Here's my number, text me guys, bye!"

Me and Thalia waved then shrugged at each other. We took off towards our classes, me barely making it to English.

When I walked in, I saw looked around, seeing a bunch of curious eyes, and a pair of grey ones in particular. The teacher gave me a small smile and went back to prepping for class. I walked back, sitting next to Annabeth who had gone back to reading her book.

"Hey, Annabeth," I say, giving her a smile.

"Hiya," she says, returning a smile, but she seems focused.

"How were your first few classes?" I asked, trying to start a conversation.

"They were alright, just a bit slow." 

"I gotcha," I say, pausing for a second, "So what's the food like here?"

"Really, you're in class and you're worried about food?"

"I worry about what's important."

"And your education isn't?" Annabeth looked fairly annoyed at this point.

"I didn't say that-" I start but get interrupted by the teacher.

"Alright class, today we will go over..." the teacher started, but I had quickly lost focus. I looked around to see Annabeth taking notes. I thought it was weird, as the teacher _Blowfish, I think?_ Was only covering the curriculum, and we got one to take home, why take notes?

"Hey, what's with the notes?" I ask aloud.

"I want to study it."

"Why?"

"So I pass the class."

"Doesn't he give us one to take home?"

Annabeth turns to me and glares something fierce. "Shouldn't you be paying attention?"

I instantly recoil at this. I was only trying to make conversation, no reason to snap at me. "Fine, sorry I guess," I say coldly, turning away from her. I don't dare look at her again. Not because I'm scared, but because I'm mad. I hadn't done, nor said anything bad, had I?

"... one of the first things we will be doing is an essay about…"

I sigh a little loud. I see Annabeth raise an eyebrow at me.

"What's wrong with essays?" she asks, seemingly annoyed.

"Not my thing," I say boredly, "They aren't fun or easy for me."

"So you don't like anything challenging?" she tries, attempted to catch me up in my words.

"I like challenging things, I just don't like essays."

She signs, shaking her head, looking back at the board.

"... and this semester we will be reading _The Catcher and The Rye,_ and a few more classics you all should enjoy."

I groan upon hearing this. Annabeth scoffs and turns to me.

"What, too good for books too?" she says, words laced with venom. The entire class is looking at us now, teacher included. They stared at us like viewers at a coliseum fight, waiting to see the next move. I instantly flush and get embarrassed.

"No, it's just that-" I try, but get interrupted.

"Is it too boring for you then?" She tried again, standing up.

"No, I just-" I tried once more, cowering, but it was in vain.

"You might think you're great, Percy, but grow up. It's a book, what's so scary about it?"

The entire class starts to laugh, or snicker about what Annabeth says. I look around, and the only person not laughing is a giant Chinese guy. I feel cornered, trapped, alone.

"If you'd let me-" I tried a final time, but it didn't work out.

"Does Thalia know her cousin is afraid of reading?" she taunted one last time. I stood up quickly, pushing my chair and table back. Annabeth looked shocked, but any sign of fear disappeared a moment after, getting replaced by her normal glare.

It's not that I was afraid, it's that I've always had a hard time reading. My teacher, Mrs. Barr in the 5th grade ridiculed me in front of the entire class because of my dyslexia. _And I thought she was cool when I first met her,_ I thought to myself.

"No, Annabeth, she doesn't," I start, voice about to shake with anger, "What she does know is that I'm dyslexic, she knows that I have ADHD, and she knows that I was relentlessly bullied for it in school." I was fuming at this point.

Annabeth's face looked like I had just punched her in the gut, as if the air from her lungs was ripped through her throat, leaving her wide-eyed and gaping. She looked sorry, apologetic, sad even, but the damage was done.

"If you think for a second that because you're Thalia's friend I will let you bully me, you're beyond wrong," I said, turning away from her.

Annabeth's mouth opened and closed, again and again.

I picked up my bag and moved, deciding to sit next to a giant Chinese dude. He had all black hair that was clean cut, a purple t-shirt, black shorts, and black running shoes. Although he looked scary, he gave me a kind smile. "Mr. Blofis, can you continue, please?" I hear him ask.

"Yes, Frank, where was I?"

Class continues as usual, slow, boring and drab. I fall asleep around halfway through, putting my head between my arms. Frank shakes me awake 5 minutes before class ends.

"Hey man, I'm Frank Zhang," he starts, "I'm dyslexic too, want to join my study group?"

I open my mouth, then close it. He was dyslexic too? And he didn't think I was weird? "Sure, I'd be happy to."

After getting to know Frank more, I realized we had a lot in common. Frank's mom and dad are both in the military, so he lives with his grandma, so he understood what it's like to not have a dad around. We both loved sports, though Frank insists that he moves like a bull in a China shop, and turns out, he also was a swimmer. We traded numbers and, like Leo and Jason, promised to hang out over the weekend.

"Hey, so about that Annabeth girl," he started, eyes taking on a wary look, "for the first 10 minutes after you walked away, she was staring at you. Then after she stopped, she'd take the occasional glance back at you, and still looks like she hates herself for what she did."

I looked really quick, trying to disguise the fact that I was looking at her as me looking around the classroom. She was staring intently down at her notepad, scribbling hard on it. Her face carried a worried look.

"Nah, she's best friends with my cousin," I say simply, denying that she feels this way because of how she acted, "She's just worried about what Thalia will say."

"I don't know man," he starts again, "she looks like she really feels bad about it."

"Who knows, who cares," I question rhetorically. The bell rings after this, and I grab my stuff, waving Frank goodbye, and walk to my next class.

 **AN: Ah, drama. Gotta love it. It looks bleak right now, but I promise that it'll get better!**

 **I PROMISE THAT NOT EVERY CHAPTER WILL HAVE EVERY SINGLE CLASS, (This one still didn't but it's getting long) AND WILL BE A BIT BETTER. On the plus side, you met a majority of the characters I'm using for right now, and I'll add more later, but these are the base group. Thanks for reading, leave a review!**

 **ALSO, everywhere there was a =-=-=-=-, I felt I could have ended the chapter. You don't gotta worry too much about it, but it helps me see where I am in my writing.**

 **-Rocke**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Hi! Welcome to chapter two! Hope you all liked the previous chapter, if not, I hope you like this one! I know a few of the characters are OOC, but I'm fixing it I swear.**

 **Reviews:**

 **Becloe for lyfe:** **F*ck yes, continue. Please this is really good**

 **Thanks! I try!**

 **Guest:** **this is really good please write more**

 **Will do!**

 **But yea, without further ado, let's do this!**

I was walking to my next class still fuming, putting my headphones in. I was blasting The Score, (I like their music, sue me) when I walked into my history class. When I walked in, I saw the teacher was in a wheel chair. He had on a warm smile and looked like he was in his mid 40's but seemed like he had been alive for centuries. I walked to the back of the class and sat down, taking my headphones out, and pulling out my book. Turns out, it was about Greek history. My mood instantly brightened.

 _Maybe I'll pass this class easy_ I thought to myself. I loved Greek history, as me and my mom always used to read it together. That, and my family was basically named off Greek gods. My dad as Poseidon, and my uncles Zeus and Hades.

"Alright class," the teacher started, "my name is Mr. Brunner, but you guys may call me Chiron." I chuckled at this, and he made eye contact with me, a slight twinkle in his eye.

"It is with great pride that I welcome to AP Greek Mythology."

My smile fell, like a kid who thought he was super jumped off the bed, falling down the ground, smashing his face into the floor, and getting up, wondering what went wrong.

I pull out my schedule and read through it, albeit slow, and realize it does say AP. I sigh a loud sigh and look back to the teacher. I looked around and realized there were only a few kids in the class which filled me with even more dread. Upon looking at the kids, I realize how all our fashion is pretty much the same. Sweaters, jeans and converse. I put that thought aside and pay attention again.

"Can anyone tell me who the 12 Olympians are?" Chiron asked.

I raised my hand, along with one other person, and I was instantly filled with anger again. Annabeth Chase was in this class. I didn't want her to know I was here, so I pulled my hand down. Chiron didn't have it though.

"In the back?" he points at me. All eyes turned to me and I sweat dropped. I didn't do good in crowds and started to feel paranoid.

"Well, the Olympians are basically the big gods of the Greek mythology. Who holds the title changes every now and then, but all the gods that held the title of Olympian are Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, or the big three, along with Athena, Apollo, Aphrodite, Ares, Artemis, Demeter, Hephaestus, Hera, Hermes, Tyche, Dionysus, and Hestia. Hestia was one of the original Olympians but gave up her spot because Dionysus wanted the title."

The entire class looked stunned. Whispers were going around, some calling me a nerd, someone saying it was awesome, I swear I heard Leo say, "Hi Percy!" and what sounded remarkably like a girl saying I was cute, but I think I was misheard. I rubbed the back of my head nervously and looked back at Mr. Brunner. He had a proud smile on his face.

"Exactly," he said, "you do your namesake justice." I froze at that. I _never_ talk about my real name. For my entire life I've gone by Percy, never _Perseus_. I give him a look as if I was scared.

"Thanks, but I go by Percy," I say, trying to send him the message. Thankfully, he understood. He carried on with class, and this time, I didn't lose focus.

"Alright," he said, finishing todays class, "Your homework is to do research on your favorite Greek god. Percy, stay behind, will you?"

The entire class oohs as if I was in trouble I knew I wasn't, I hadn't done anything wrong, had I? I nodded, and packed up my stuff, putting my notebook inside. I pick up my bag, slinging it over one shoulder, and walk up to Chiron nervously. We wait for the entire class to clear before talking.

"You had a talent for Greek Mythology my boy," he starts, keeping up the ever-present warm smile, "I'm surprised to have a student like you in this class, as very few kids actually understand or take interest in it."

"Just to clarify, I'm not in trouble?" I ask cautiously.

"Quite the opposite, Percy, I'm commending you on a job well done."

"Oh," I say a little shocked, "Thanks." Not many teachers had ever said I did a good job, so this was a shock to me.

"I would like to give you something," he says, rolling behind his desk. When he comes back out, he hands me a gold pen with Latin written on it. I was so intricate, so simple and beautiful, yet seemingly powerful… if a pen could be powerful. I read the engraving, putting together the word:

"Anaklusmos?" I ask Chiron curiously.

"So, you can read Latin," he says with a curious gleam, "It means _Riptide_ in English. I knew you were smart Percy, but not many people can read a lost language that fluently."

"I mean, it's not that hard," I say bashfully, "I have Greek in my family. Me and my cousins talk Latin all the time when we don't want people to listen in to our conversations."

"I see," he says, scratching his beard, "Well, I admit, you are an amazing student, Mr. Jackson, and I hope to get to know you a bit more throughout your high school career."

"You too, Chiron," I say with a smile. I slip the pen in my pocket and turn to the door when Chiron interrupts me.

"Oh, and Percy?"

I turn around and look at him, and he holds out a piece of paper. It has writing on it, but it's a lot so I don't even try and read it.

"Give it to Quintus, the sword fighting coach," he says with a mischievous grin, "It's something I want him to know."

I nod, then actually walk out this time. I get half way to my class when the minute bell rings, and sprint to get to my sword fighting class. I blaze past a late Jason and we high five each other on the way to our respective classes. I get in the door just as the bell rings, out of breath, and sweating. When I stand up, I see 25 people staring at me like I was the last piece of food on the table and they hadn't had their fill. One pair of sad looking grey-eyes catch my attention, but I push her out of my head, I wasn't dealing with it right now. I see the teacher and he's chuckling.

"Welcome to sword fighting," he says with a proud grin, "My name is Quintus Daedalus." There is a collective wave of oohs and wows, even I am in shock. Quintus Daedalus is a master sword fighter, as well as a genius. He had at least 10 different degree's and won in over 30 sword fighting competitions with a 100% success rate.

"Oh," I say, pulling the piece of paper from my back pocket out, "Chiron wanted me to give this to you."

He takes the note and reads it. His eyebrows raise, and he gives me a very stoic look, one combined with pride, excitement, and seriousness.

"I see," he says, "We will talk more about this when class starts."

I nod, then head back to the rest of the class.

"I need everyone to find a partner," Quintus announces, "it doesn't matter who, as long as there is someone."

Everyone starts to partner off, leaving me with no one. I ask around a few times, but everyone is partnered up.

 _Dang,_ I think, looking at a guy who was around my height, looked ripped, and had a giant smile on his face, _that guy would have been fun to fight._

"If you don't have a partner, raise your hand!"

I put my hand up and see another one about 10 feet away. Their body is covered by other people, so I walk after the hand. When I get past all the people I see who it is.

 _Annabeth freaking Chase_ , I think, annoyed at my partner, _lucky me._

"Oh," she says, quieter than she was before, "Hi Perce."

"It's Percy, Chase," I say coldly. She winces at the use of her last name. I wasn't in the mood to talk right now, so I turned to the teacher.

"Can we talk at lunch?" she asks, sounding as if she was pleading with me, "Please?"

I look at her, _actually_ looking at her, and I see her eyes. Her normally stormy grey eyes seem clouded – Does it work like that? – by emotions. Regret, sadness, fear.

 _Say no! Not after what she pulled!_ I think to myself, trying my hardest to not succumb to her.

"Fine," I say, mentally wincing and face palming, "But focus, I'm actually interested in this class."

She nods, tearing her gaze to the teacher. Her hands are gripping the bottom of her shirt. Probably a nervous habit.

"Alright," the teacher speaks up, after opening up two giant closets, lined with swords, and daggers, "Pick a sword that feels balanced to you. It shouldn't be too heavy, or too light." Me and Annabeth start looking for swords, but I can't find one. None of them seem balanced, it's either too light, or too heavy, or too short, or too long.

"Mr. Daedalus, none of them seem balanced to me," I say while walking up to him.

"Hmmm," he says, holding his chin, "I have an idea, but we'll talk a tad bit more after class. Just use one of the other swords for now." I nod and go grab a random sword.

"Alright, you're going to spar with your partner," Quintus says, leaving all of us confused, "I know you haven't learned anything yet, but this is for me to see where you are at."

I look at Annabeth and put my sword up. She pulls out her dagger and stands at the ready. She gives me one last sad look, then closes her eyes. When they open, all emotion is gone, her face serious, mentally ready for a fight. _This'll be interesting,_ I think to myself. I knew she might not have the same experience, so I wasn't going to go all out.

Or so I thought. I take the first strike, going for a downward swing, but she blocks it then goes for a stab at my abdomen, leaving me very little time to dodge out of the way. Before I fully get my footing, she spins going for another attack. I drop into a squat and swing at her feet, she jumps, and lands on my sword, rendering me disarmed. She holds the dagger to my throat by the point, pushing my face up. When I look at her, she has a light smile, eyes with emotion again. I take this as my chance to strike. I back roll, kicking the dagger out of her hand in the process. When I land out of my roll, I catch the dagger pointing down and charge. Annabeth kicks up my sword from the ground, barely catching it in time to block. When hold it here, trying to overpower each other. A second goes by, then Annabeth pushes me back with the sword, making me stumble. She takes a swing, leaving me to either take the cut, or attempt to back handspring out. I'm somewhat successful in my one-handed backhand spring, landing on my feet sideways, holding my blade up. We're 8 feet apart at this point, breathing heavy, when we hear applause. We both look around and see everyone else had finished when we were fighting, leaving them a show.

"Bravo," QD says, a proud smile on his face. The lunch bell rings, and we all go to put our weapons back. When he stops us. "Keep the weapons, I need you guys to have the same ones every time, it's easier if you keep them. Leave them in your lockers though. And Percy, a word?"

Annabeth tells me to meet her by the tree in the quad after I'm done talking with Daedalus. I nod, kinda dreading that conversation. The rest of the class leaves, chattering about how it was fun to fight, some apologizing for being rough to the other. It was a great class to be honest.

I follow him to a closet that is locked up with an interesting key hole. "Take out the pen Chiron gave you."

I pull it out of my pocket and marvel at it for a second. This pen must have cost a fortune.

"Unscrew it," he commands. I unscrew the bottom, and when I pull it apart, it's the shape of the key hole. I look shocked and Daedalus and he motions for me to put in it. I twist the lock, opening the crazy closet of mystery – a crappy name I know, but I was shocked. I look inside, and there's only one thing inside. A bronze sword with the word _Anaklusmos_ on it, just like my pen. I pick it up, feeling the weight of it, taking in the shape. It's perfect. It's the perfect length, the weight isn't off balance, it looks stunning.

"Wow," I say, admiring it.

"Take it," he says with a small smile. He seems kind of sad, yet happy to see the sword go.

"Oh, no I can't," I try putting it back, but a hand stops me.

"I've had that sword for a while. It was a girl named Zoe's. She was my prized student. She used it in every competition she did, won every fight, was nearly untouchable. She had it custom made and loved the sword. She had given it to a boy who claimed his sword broke. The kid turned around and sold it to make a quick buck. Zoe's father was livid. Zoe was devastated. I spent years looking for it, and even longer holding onto it, trying to find someone I felt was worth taking it. Glad to see it go into your hands."

I was stunned. A story like that all because of a sword? "Are you sure?" I asked cautiously. I had never received anything like this before.

"If Chiron says he thinks you're good for it, I put my faith in him," he says with a warm smile, "That, and I hope to see you compete this year." He says the last part with a wink.

"Go, enjoy your lunch. And make up with Annabeth."

I nod and walk out of the class to my locker. I carry the sword proudly, kids looking at me as if I was carrying a block of solid gold. I place it in my locker, and cover my combo with my hand, allowing only me to see it, hiding it away. Looking at the time, I realize I should head over to the tree. While walking, I pass by Frank and he gives me a giant smile. I smile back and give him a typical dude hug and keep going. I spot the tree, and see Annabeth sitting down next to it. I take a deep breath and walk over, dreading this conversation.

"Percy," she says, standing up quickly, "I didn't think you would actually come."

"If I say I'm going to do something, I'll do it," I say boredly. Truth be told, I don't hate her, I just hate what she did.

"Right, right," she says, looking down, "Look, Percy, I didn't mean all the stuff I said back there, I don't know what came over me. I know what it's like to be dyslexic, I am too, I think that's why I got so aggressive. People always complaining about reading when they don't know how hard it is for other people. That, and I'm just stressed with all my AP classes, my brothers were annoying this morning and spilt milk on me three times, I had to change four different times. It's just been rough. I apologize from the bottom of my heart, and hope that you can forgive me, because I really do want to be friends. The way you joke with Nico, and Thalia, the way you make friends with people you never met before, I want to know you more. I understand if you don't want to, but I-I just want to let you know that I was sorry."

I looked at her with a mix of emotions going through my head, confused, understanding, happy, and slightly angry. Her head was down still, and she was clenching her fists, almost expecting me to cuss her out. I sighed aloud.

"Look at me," I say, putting a hand on her shoulder. She looks up, scared, as if she was an orphan on the streets and I was the first person to offer her solace. "I don't hate you, and I'm not sure I ever could, Thalia might kill me if I did," I joked, getting a small smile out of her, "And I accept your apology, come here." I pull her into a hug – _I'm a hugger and we're friends now, and friends hug, don't make this anything more than it is_ – and felt her hug back. "Can I offer you some advice?" I ask, stepping apart, instantly missing her warmth. _Calm down Percy, it was only a hug._ She nods, and offers me a small smile, eyes flooded with relief and happiness. "next time you're stressed, just tell me to shut up instead of bashing me?"

She laughs a warm and sweet laugh, and I can't help but smile wider. "Good idea," she says.

"Yea, you're not the only one with brains here _Wise Girl_ ," I say jokingly.

"Wise girl?" she asks with an eyebrow raised and a small smirk.

"You said you're in all AP classes, and you're a girl, so Wise Girl."

"You're stupid," she says laughing. I laugh with her, as the nickname is a little silly.

"Nah, I think I'm pretty great," I say, puffing out my chest. We both laugh and get to know each other a bit more. Annabeth, although dyslexic, loved to read, and write. Her favorite book was _To Kill a Mockingbird._ Her favorite color was grey, favorite animal was an owl, favorite food was pasta, and she had a 4.0 GPA all throughout her junior high career. The bell rings, meaning lunch was over.

"Walk with me to my locker?" she asks, with a cute smile – WOAH WOAH WOAH PERCY, CUTE? – with a small smile.

"Sure, why not," I say with a small shrug, but a happy smile. We start walking to her locker, having a simple conversation, relaxing.

"So, what are you doing after school today?" I ask, trying to know a bit more.

"Nothing much," she says, pulling her binder up to her chest, "Probably a bit of studying, then relaxing. What about you?"

"Uhhh," I say, forgetting everything. I pull out my phone and look at my reminder list. I look through it, making sure there isn't anything too embarrassing, and show it to her.

"Oh, you're doing the swim tryouts?" she asks curiously. I nod vigorously, excited by the thought of water and swimming. She laughs again. "Alright then, _Seaweed Brain_."

"Seaweed brain?" I asked, stifling my laughter.

"Yea, because you like water, and with all the crazy nodding you did, your brain has to be seaweed at this point."

"Hmm," I say, pretending to think, "I like it. Seaweed Brain and Wise Girl! The Dynamic Duo!" I hit a superman pose after saying the last part, making Annabeth laugh harder than I've ever seen her laugh before, granted, I just met her today, but you get the point.

"How do you think you'll do?" she asks me. I smirk and shrug. I know that I'm the fastest swimmer here, and maybe in the state. I thought I'd leave it up to surprise.

"I don't know," I say with a stupid grin, pretending to think, "Hopefully pretty well."

For such a rough beginning, this friendship is seemingly off to a good start.

"I think you'll do good. Luke might give you a run for your money though," she says, eyes calculating again.

"Luke? Blonde hair blue eyes?"

"That's the one," she said with a absent smile. She liked him, but I'm not sure in which way. Almost brotherly, but could have been something bigger, I'm not sure.

"Gotcha," I said, pulling out my phone, writing that down in my notes – the swim thing that is.

"What's your next class?" she asks, putting everything in her locker, then closing it.

"Choir, you?"

"Oh!" she exclaimed, "I have choir too!" I smiled, _thank god, more friends._

"Oh sweet!" I say a little loudly, people now looking at us. I shy back a little bit and they go back to whatever they were doing. "After you, malady!" I say, pretending to tip my imaginary fedora. She laughed, then started walking in the direction of the choir class, me following on her trail.

 **AN: Alright! So, we have reached the end of this chapter. First things first, I feel like the apology was kind of rushed, and Percy forgiving Annabeth so quickly was also rushed, but my excuse is that it's Percy. I've always seen him as kind, compassionate, and forgiving, so this seemed like it would fit. Second, I've come to the decision that I want to carry this entire series throughout all 4 years of High School. It'll be a little long, but with each chapter hitting around 4K words, it'll be amazing. I have a rough outline that will take place over many chapters, but if I ever feel like I've reached a hardcore ending, I'll let you guys know! But yea, review, and let me know what you guys think! See you next chapter!**

 **-Rocke**


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Welcome back to Ch. 3! It seems like you guys really enjoy the series so far, and that's awesome! I have my outline all done for the next 15 chapters at least, so we should be good for a bit. Right now, I don't have a hard ending, but I'm thinking after high school, I may split it into a College series, I'm not sure. I do know that this series is going to average around 15 chapters every year of High school, so it'll hit around 60 chapters total and around 240,000 words. Think you can stick around that long? I hope so! We're on this ride together my friends. Now, let's get started with the reviews!**

 **OH ALSO, THERE IS MUSIC INTHIS CHAPTER, THIS WILL NOT HAPPEN OFTEN, JUST EVERY ONCE AND A WHILE! I WAS A CHOIR KID SO I'M MUSICALLY DRIVEN, SO IT'LL BE PRESENT A BIT, SORRY 'BOUT IT.**

 **And without further ado, into Chapter 3.**

 **PERCY**

Me and Annabeth walked into choir laughing and joking around. I turned to look at the class and felt at home. There were guitars lining the walls, platinum records, and trophies all over. There was an all-white guitar in the front of the class on a stand. It looked pristine.

I picked it up and gave it a strum, sounding perfectly in tune. I examined it closer in my hands, and marveled at how intricate the design was, it was flawless. It had to have been waxed before, the strings looked fresh, no scratches or dents, just amazing.

"Percy, you've been marveling over that guitar for ages," Annabeth says, a small smile on her lips, "either play something, or put it down."

"Alright," I say about to put it down, but holding it a second longer, "I'll ask if I can play during class."

"Smart," Annabeth says, nodding, "Wouldn't want the teacher to think you were taking his job, now would we?"

"Eh, it'd be funny!"

"Seaweed Brain No," she says, face palming, but with a fraction of a smile playing on her lips.

I pull out my music binder, looking over some of the music the teacher assigned for the first semester and started sight reading through it.

Kids start trickling in with the teacher, and he begins class. "Welcome to Advanced choir," he said, saying cheerily, teeth remarkably white, "My name is Mr. Solace, but you can call me Apollo." Every said their "HI's" and went and sat down. I was surprised how many friends I already had in this class. I was sitting next to Thalia, Nico, Jason, Leo, and Annabeth. "Now, I want to ask if-" he started, but was interrupted by a certain red-head bursting in.

"Sorry I'm late!" Rachel said, pulling out a note, "I was talking to the art teacher."

"No problem, now go sit down Ms. Dare." Rachel looked around, then made eye contact with me. She turned red again – dang, she must really be sick – and came and sat next to all of us.

"As I was saying, does anyone know how to play any instruments?" Nico, Thalia and I raised our hands. A handful of others, but not many. "Who would be happy to perform a solo?" I kept my hand raised when everyone else's went down. My group was thoroughly confused except for maybe Thalia and Nico. "C'mon down!" Apollo said, motioning for me to come to the front of the class.

"I play guitar, got one I can borrow?" I say jokingly. He hands me a guitar. It wasn't as spectacular as the white one, but it did still look beautiful.

"Uh," I said, suddenly a bit nervous, "I don't know what to play."

"Play Shape of You!" a kid yelled from the back.

"That has like, 30 different instruments, not just guitar!" another voice said. Oooh, choir drama already! This'll be fun.

"I can do it," I say confidently, "Acoustic isn't too hard."

"Yea right!" yelled a deep voice from the back.

I looked at the teacher and he motioned for me to go ahead. I shrugged and took a deep breath. When I opened my eyes, I had a playful smirk on my face. I give a powerful strum and start playing. **(AN: For a second, let's ignore that they are kids :P)**

 _The club isn't the best place to find a lover  
So the bar is where I go  
Me and my friends at the table doing shots  
Drinking fast and then we talk slow  
Come over and start up a conversation with just me  
And trust me I'll give it a chance now  
Take my hand, stop, put Van the Man on the jukebox  
And then we start to dance, and now I'm singing like_

I look up, and there is a mixture of faces. Some girls look delighted, some guys look at me like I'm amazing, one guy actually looked like I was going to be his dinner, but I put that aside. I looked at my group and the faces were awesome. Jason and Leo were cheering me on, Rachel looked like she was burning up – someone get her to a doctor already! – Annabeth looked wide eyed, and had a slight tinge to her face, while Thalia and Nico looked supportive, while also making funny faces. I guess performing for them for so long makes them immune to my amazing voice.

 _Girl, you know I want your love  
Your love was handmade for somebody like me  
Come on now, follow my lead  
I may be crazy, don't mind me  
Say, boy, let's not talk too much  
Grab on my waist and put that body on me  
Come on now, follow my lead  
Come, come on now, follow my lead_

I give a wink to a group of girls on the side of the room and hear them giggle. Thalia and Nico start laughing, Jason and Leo are still cheering me on, and Annabeth and Rachel, well, as still in a state of shock? I shrug it off and continue.

 _I'm in love with the shape of you  
We push and pull like a magnet do  
Although my heart is falling too  
I'm in love with your body  
And last night you were in my room  
And now my bedsheets smell like you  
Every day discovering something brand new  
I'm in love with your body  
Oh—I—oh—I—oh—I—oh—I  
I'm in love with your body  
Oh—I—oh—I—oh—I—oh—I  
I'm in love with your body  
Oh—I—oh—I—oh—I—oh—I  
I'm in love with your body  
Every day discovering something brand new  
I'm in love with the shape of you_

I cut it short because I do want to get into class stuff, but give it one last strum, letting it resonate. When I finish, I hear the class applauding, and the teacher chuckling. My group is probably the loudest with Leo screaming "SIGN MY FOREHEAD PERCY!" and I can't help but to laugh. I had the guitar to Mr. Solace, and head back to my seat.

"Now that the show is over," he says with an excited smile, "let's get started!"

Class had continued without problem, except for the occasional giggling from the side of the class from a group of girls. Apparently if you can sing, girls think you're awesome. Thalia, Nico, Jason, Leo, Annabeth, Rachel and I were all leaving the class, talking about this, that, and the other. We walked to my locker and dropped everything inside, and we continued our way to the pool.

"So, you ready for this Perce?" Jason asked, holding his bag on one shoulder.

"Yea, I'll be fine!" I say confidently.

"Yea, Kelp Head'll do alright, dudes fast," Thalia added.

"Saying that he's _fast_ is like saying a dog is hyper," Nico said sarcastically, "He isn't fast, he's a blur our there!"

"You guys are acting like he's the god of water," Annabeth says disbelieving, "I mean, how fast can he really be?"

"I haven't ever seen anyone beat him before," Nico says, thinking hard.

"Wait," Rachel says, stopping us, looking confused, "What is Percy fast at, and where are we going?" Everyone kind of gave her a look, as if questioning where she had been. Thalia and Nico traded glances, then back to Rachel.

"We're going to the pool to watch Seaweed Brain tryout," Annabeth said a little snippy. Rachels eyes widened, then smiled.

"Seaweed Brain?" Thalia asks with eyes raised, "Since when do you guys have nicknames for each other?"

"Uh," I said, not sure how to respond to that. I didn't want to let them know that Me and Annabeth had gotten in a fight in English.

"Since Lunch," Annabeth says, "We had sword fighting together, and I said he said I acted like a stupid _Wise Girl_ , and I said he fought like he had a _Seaweed Brain_ and they kinda stuck."

I looked at Annabeth and gave her a look of thanks. She just smiled, acting as if nothing had happened.

Thalia just shrugged and took the answer, thinking it was good enough, much like everyone else in the group.

"Twenty bucks says he beats everyone else by half a pools length," Rachel says confidently.

"That's stupid," Thalia says brashly, while everyone else's faces drop at her insult, "You've never even seen him swim, and you're willing to put that kind of money on him?" I look back at Rachel and she shrugs.

"Well, yea, you guys are confident in him, so I'll take my chances." Everyone else shrugs, and eventually, there is a little pot going on. We've reached about $100 about how much I'll win by. Rachel said half, Annabeth said a quarter, Leo and Jason both said a full pool length – these dudes know how to make a man feel good I swear – and Thalia said it'd be a photo finish. Nico didn't bet because he doesn't like to spend much of his money.

When we got to the pool, I dropped my pants, showing of my teal swim trunks, tied tightly around my waist. "Jackson!" I heard Coach Hedge yelling, "Get over here!"

"I'll be there in a sec!" I call back, turning back to my group who are sitting on the risers. I give them a giant smile, then take off my shirt, and ran to the poolside. _I got this_ I thought to myself.

 **ANNABETH**

I watched Percy take off his shirt and couldn't help but stare. His entire body was chiseled and muscular. His dark black hair complimented his tanned skin tone. I wasn't typically a girl to fawn over a guy for his looks, but I couldn't help it this time. Percy was _hot_.

I was pulled out of my thoughts by a laughing Thalia and Nico. Jason, Leo, and Rachel looked a confused as I was. They were laughing for a straight minute. They stood up, wiping tears away, giving each other a high five.

"Uh," Rachel starts, eyebrow raised, "What's so funny?" Thalia and Nico trade glances, then smirk.

"Oh, you know," Nico says sarcastically, "Just _enjoying the view_." Thalia gives me a wink, and I get what they meant. I got caught red handed staring at their cousin, and I couldn't be more embarrassed. I flushed a bright red, but Rachel still looked a tad bit confused. Leo was too busy eating popcorn. Jason gave a quick smirk, then got a text on his phone.

"Hey, Rachel," I start, "how do you know Seaweed Brain?"

"Oh," she said, eyes looking as if they were reminiscing, "He and Thalia had helped me in the hall. My ex was being a T word."

"The T word?" Leo asked curiously with one of his eyebrows raised.

"Twat," both of us said at the same time. We looked at each other, and Rachel smiled. I gave her a small smile, still a little unsure about her.

"Ookay!" Leo said,

"Hey, do you guys mind if my … friend… Piper comes over to hang out with us?" he asks, getting a slight red tinge.

"Piper McLean?" I ask curiously.

"That's the one," he says, getting redder and redder.

"I'm alright with it, she's one of my friends actually," I say happily. I hadn't seen her this year, but I'm glad to be able to see her again.

"If Annie's cool with it, I'm cool with it," Thalia said, ignoring me glaring at her and her little nickname.

"Shhh," Nico quiets, "Percy, Luke and that blonde kid are about to go!" I raised my eyebrows about the comment about the blonde kid, but I wanted to see how well Percy would do.

I almost forget about Luke. I see Coach Hedge raise the starting gun… 3… 2… 1… _Go!_ And they take off, Percy pushing off of the platform, diving a good 7 feet forward, making it a little farther than half the pool underwater. When he came back up, he was ahead of everyone else by at least a quarter of the pools length. Percy was flying – er – swimming insanely fast. No one had a chance. The distance he had kept growing and growing. They had hit 6 laps, when 7 other kids been left in the dust, leaving only Percy, Luke, and another blonde kid being able to make the top. Leo was cheering hard, Jason was crossing his fingers, Thalia was pumping her leg up and down nervously, Nico was whispering profanities about what he would do to Percy if he lost. Piper is here now, sitting next to Jason, watching as Jason points out his friend who she was supposed to be rooting for.

"GO PERCY!" Rachel yells, jumping up and down. She's cheering hardcore, screaming and yelling, and it makes something turn in my stomach, but I'm not sure why. Seeing this, I also stand up, and try and cheer even louder than Rachel.

"GO SEAWEED BRAIN! SWIM FASTER!" I start, waving my arms up and down. Thalia and Nico exchange glances again, giving me a sly look, but I'm too focused.

Percy is still in the lead, but Luke and Blondie are gaining ground. Blondie tires out, and slows down a bit, leaving Percy and Luke. They're on their last lap. Three fourths of the pool left… Half…. A quarter… PERCY WINS! Percy Beat Luke by a quarter of the pool left!

"YES!" I shout, excited for Percy, and my winnings from the bet.

Our group breaks out into cheers and applause. When Percy comes out of the pool, he runs up and hugs all of us, effectively getting us all wet. We're all talking about how great it was while he catches his breath.

"I think," he says, still in between breaths, "I am the fastest swimmer alive." We all laugh at his stupid joke and go to sit down on the bleachers. Percy Lays down, drying off remarkably fast and changing into his normal clothes. Luke comes up and shakes Percy's hand, wishing him a job well done.

"You were fast dude," Luke says with a smile, "Glad to have you on the team."

"Eh," Percy says, "We don't know yet. With my luck, the coach is going to say I'm part fish and disqualify me." The two chuckled and gave each other your typical bro hug. Luke sits with us, pretty much joining the group. We sat and spoke for an extra 15 minutes, leaving just Thalia, Luke, Percy, Rachel and I. Nico had gone to talk to that other blonde kid, giving me a sneaking suspicion that something was afoot, but I wasn't sure what, Leo went home to go work on his shop class project, Jason and Piper both left, something about getting a bite to eat.

"So, after me and Luke's amazing tryouts," Percy said with a grin, "How about some food and a movie?"

"Oooh, I like that idea," Luke said with a grin.

"I'm in!" Rachel said cheerily, sitting oddly close to Percy. Thalia snorts, but hides it behind a fake sneeze.

"I'm down to go," Thalia says, shrugging, "I don't have much to do so it'll be nice to get out of the house."

"I'll go, but I'll need a ride," I say. My family was well off, but I didn't have my own car yet. Something about not needing one, at least, that one Susan said.

"I can give you a lift," Percy said, with a warm smile, "I just have to move some stuff to the back seat, but other than that, you're all clear." There was an emotion that flickered on Rachels face, but it came just as fast as it went, leaving only a trace amount of emotion on her face.

"Thanks Seaweed Brain," I say with a smile, slightly happy I could make Rachel even slightly jealous. I didn't hate her, but I didn't like how close she was to Percy. She acted like they were dating or something. God, I hope not, I'm not sure how that couple could work. Rachel seemed a little too hippie for Percy.

"So," Thalia started, sounding bored as ever, "What are we going to watch?" We all looked around and shrugged. No one had thought of a potential movie.

"How about everyone gives a genre?" Thalia said questioned, "Percy?"

"Horror!" he said with a devious grin.

"Luke?"

"Action."

"Rachel?"

"Comedy?"

"And I want to watch a chick flick," Thalia said, attempting to move on.

"What about me?" I asked, curious as to why I wasn't asked.

"We aren't watching a documentary, Annie," Thalia said with a slight smirk. I blushed and tried to cover up my tracks but it didn't work.

"I wasn't – I don't – I want – shut up, Thalia."

"Luke, Percy, play Rock Paper scissors, and come here Rach," Thalia said, "Whoever wins, we see what movie they want." Everyone shrugged, and got to it, playing for their lives. Well, for what they wanted to see, but close enough. Percy had beaten Luke, and Thalia had beaten Rachel.

"Oh I'm going to win," Thalia said confidently, "I've been playing you for years now, I know exactly how you play!" Percy just shrugged, with a confident smirk. He looked at me and gave a small wink. _Somethings up, he has something_.

Thalia threw Paper, expecting Percy to go with Rock, but he went with scissors. "That's alright, it's only one round!" she said confidently, yet giving out a nervous laugh. The next game all happened in slow motion. Thalia threw down scissors, expecting or Percy to rotate to Paper to counter Thalia's rock, but Percy out played her, throwing down a solid rock. Thalia let out a gasp and looked at Percy. Rachel, Luke, and I all cheered, not expecting Percy to win either. Apparently, it wasn't too hard to realize that Percy wasn't a next level scholar, so to see him outplay Thalia like this was insane. Nearly 5 seconds later, we all realized that we were cheering for a game of Rock Paper Scissors. We all stopped, looking embarrassed. Percy was having a laughing fit, making it all the more embarrassing.

"Oh man, that was good," he said after finishing laughing. Thalia was angry at this. He wiped a tear from his eye, then pulled his stuff from his locker, "Anyway, aside from you guys being silly, should we get going?"

"Yep," I said happily, "See you guys at the movies." Everyone waved except Thalia who was grumbling and separated, Rachel staying behind a fraction of a second longer than Thalia and Luke. _Oh yea, she likes him_.

"This way to my car!" Percy exclaimed excitedly.

"You like to drive I take it?" I asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Love it," he said with a giant smile, "It helps me clear my head sometimes… That, and my ride is totally awesome." We walked for a few minutes, strolling up to find Dark Blue Jeep with a surfboard laying across the top. Down the hood, there was a big trident decal. It looked as if it had been to the beach many times over, but still appeared to be clean. When I got inside, I was shocked. The seats were a dark black leather with blue stitching. The steering wheel was black and gold, and instead of a typical stereo, there was a screen. It looked like a GPS, but also looked a little more high tech than that. I sat down and got comfortable. I took a deep breath in, taking in the smell of sea breeze. For such a cool car, it felt homey.

"As much as I hate using my dad's money," he started, a giant grin plastered on his face, "I gotta say, it does get some cool things."

"Cool?" I ask in disbelief, "This thing is amazing!"

"Well, buckle up, and let's go!" he said excitedly. He started the car and started messing with his GPS screen, showing directions to the theater. He plugged in his phone, playing some Bruno Mars in the background.

"Trying to set the mood, Jackson?" I asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Nah, he just has some good songs," he replied, smile wide.

We chatted about aimless stuff on the way to the theater, but my curiosity got the best of me. I had to know about Rachel.

"So," I start, trying not to sound prying, "What's up with you and Rachel?"

"She's cool," he said nonchalantly, "I helped stop Ethan from messing with her, and now she's a friend."

"Just a friend?" I ask cautiously because Rachel didn't act like _just a friend_.

"I mean," Percy said with a slightly confused face on, "Yea, what else would she be?"

"Percy, are you _really_ this oblivious?"

"I thought it was _your_ nickname that was Wise Girl."

I stared at him with a shocked look. There was no way he didn't pick up on Rachel. He took a quick peek at me and shrugged.

"Percy, she was blushing the entire time you were swimming, or when you were around her."

"She could have been sick," he tried, but I shook my head.

"She sat _really_ close to you."

"She thinks we are good friends?"

We were at a red light now, stopped, and I was just looking at him. I was a mixture of confused, happy, frustrated, and tired. He had a face of slight confused, but just happiness. It wasn't until now that I saw the color of his eyes. They were a striking green-blue color, bright and powerful, emotions radiating through them. It was at this moment that I realized something that I didn't want to.

I had realized why Rachel had set off alarms. I liked Percy Jackson. I liked his lopsided grin, his sea green eyes, the way he carries himself, the way he defends his friends, I liked him. I immediately blushed and turned away. Through the side of my eye, I saw his emotions change ever so slightly. His smile faltered a bit, turning into a half frown.

The light turned green, and we drove the rest of the way in silence, but a comfortable silence. There was no pressure to talk. When we got to the theater, we saw Rachel talking with Thalia and Luke, except she had changed. She was wearing a black skirt with a jean jacket on, with black and white converse on.

"What's up guys!" Percy called out, waving at them. Everyone waved, and Rachel gave a giant grin. Upon closer inspection, she was also wearing makeup.

Luke leaned over and whispered into Thalia's ear, and Thalia laughed aloud. "Deal!" she said a little loudly, then shook Luke's hand. I shrugged the idea away for the moment, and we went to go buy tickets. We decided to watch a classic, _Nightmare on Elm Street,_ and went in. Mid movie, me and Rachel both got scared, and leaned into Percy – I DID IT ON ACCIDENT – and made eye contact. We both glared and leaned away. Neither of us moved for the rest of the movie. Besides that incident, it was good. Percy drove me home and stopped in front of my house.

"Goodnight Wise Girl, thanks for coming with us tonight."

"Night Seaweed Brain," I said with a small smile, "And anytime, just let me know when you want to hang out, a vice versa."

"Will do," he said with a chuckle.

"Bye," I said, one last smile on my lips, "Drive safe."

Percy waved and drove off. I sat in front of my door and took a deep breath. I didn't hate my home, but I didn't have the best relationship with my step mom. I walked into my house quietly and got ready for bed. I looked at the time and it was nearing midnight. I sighed, laying down, plugging my phone in, and placed it on my night stand. I closed my eyes, drifting off to sleep, my last thought being of a pair of sea green eyes.

 **AN: Yo! We back! Sorry for it being a little longer than usual, college decided to slam me against the wall and drag me across it. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, and be prepared for some drama in the next coming chapters. Truths will be revealed, stories will be told, and families will be destroyed. See you then! :D**

 **-Rocke**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: Welcome to Chapter 4! I completely forgot to write the reviews in for the last chapter, my bad, let's do them now!**

 **Dope! Now to the next point!**

 **Second, WE GOT 500 VIEWS IN 3 CHAPTERS GUYS! THAT'S MIND BOGGLING! When I started this story in my head, I thought it would be a fun little thing to write, nothing major, nothing anyone would really care to read. Thank you, guys, so much! It means a lot when I read reviews and see what y'all say, and when I see how many views it gets, and the followers goes up, it makes me feel like I did something right. So, again, thank you all.**

 **Alright guys, without further ado, let's go!**

 **Percy**

It had been a few days and I walked into school Friday morning tired and hungry. I hadn't had breakfast because I woke up late, around 20 minutes before school started. I had thrown on a black sweater and a black V-neck, slipping on a pair of black jeans and my black and white Nikes.

"Hey Perce," I heard behind me. I turned and saw Luke. He was giving me a smile. He looked like my opposite today. He was wearing a white sweater with a white V-neck, a pair of black jeans and white converse. His blonde hair rivaled my black.

"Is it opposite day?" I asked with a small grin. He laughed, and we started talking about swim, just walking around the school for a few minutes. We actually had a lot in common. Luke started to turn into what felt like my best friend, and thank god, I need some good friends to rely on. Don't get me wrong, Leo and Jason were always going to be some of my best friends but having Luke as a friend was dope. Leo was hyper, Jason was calm and collected, and Luke felt like he could be chaotic if he wanted to.

"So, what's up with you and Rachel?" he had asked. I was a little thrown off as we were just talking about swimming before he brought her up.

"I mean," I started, putting my hands behind my head, "She's cool. Annabeth says she likes me, but I don't think so. Even if she did, I only see her as a friend."

"Uh huh," he said with a curious smile, "and what about Annabeth?"

This question stumped me. What _had_ I thought about Annabeth? When we were in the car the other day, I swear I felt a connection, but I couldn't be sure. I thought about how her grey eyes were still calculating, as if she was still trying to figure me out. I thought about her blonde curls, and how they fell gently down her face, framing it perfectly. I thought about her tan skin, and how she had gotten it through sports, and playing outside, not sun bathing. I thought about how she was always buried nose deep into a book.

"I – I," I started, not being able to finish. I looked at Luke, dropping my arms, moving them around as if that would help me get the words back into my brain. Luke laughed and put his hand on my shoulder.

"Dude, you're so into her," he said with a giant grin.

"W – What!" I start, practically yelling, "No I don't! I just think she's a great friend who has really awesome eyes, and has an amazing personality, and I…" I paused, thinking about it for a second. Then it hit me like a truck. Every emotion I had around her, everything about her, I had remembered it all.

"I… I like her," I said, looking at a blank nothingness at this point, just trying to understand what was going on, "but I don't think she likes me back.

"You should go for it dude," Luke said, pulling out a bag of chips from his backpack.

"Hah, yea, okay," I start sarcastically, "She wouldn't go for me. I don't read, she loves books, I swim, she runs, I get B's if I'm lucky, she gets A's like they are nothing. We're opposites dude."

"Hmm," he said, obviously fake thinking, "I'm not sure man, I think she's into you."

"Yeah, okay." We continued to talk about random things, but I couldn't get Annabeth out of my head. She was playing on loop. I kept hearing her laugh, seeing her smile, smelling her scent of lemon.

The bell rang after a few minutes, and me and Luke parted ways. On my way to class, I saw Annabeth, and she gave me a warm smile. I returned it, probably looking stupid, because all I could do was stare.

"Want to go over the English homework tonight Seaweed Brain?" she asked with bright eyes. I knew I couldn't say no, not that I wanted to. I had to speak before I stared for _too_ long.

"Sure thing, Wise Girl," I said without stuttering. _Mm, Mental high five!_

"Awesome, meet you after classes!" she said, giving me one last smile, then walking briskly to her class. I smiled to myself, then sighed a deep sigh. _Yea, I'm not going to be able to focus today_ , I thought, but that was okay.

The day rolled by, surprisingly fast, and we went into lunch time. The group had found a table next to a tree in the quad, so we all met up and sat together. Thalia looked bored, Nico was eating a burger, Jason and Piper were sitting together and chatting, Luke had been watching a video of people failing, Leo had brought a full Lego set, but had it halfway done 5 minutes into lunch, Frank was sitting down, talking about archery class, and Rachel was sitting down drawing. When Annabeth and I walked up, everyone smiled at us. Rachel looked like she was in a bit of pain, but it disappeared as soon as it came.

"What's up guys?" I asked with a smile. Annabeth and I were sweating from sword fighting, but we had giant smiles on. We had a competition going on who could beat each other more, and nothing was off the table besides death and maiming. This often left us with pulling ridiculous pranks on each other mid class to throw the other off guard.

"Nothin much, just finishing this build," Leo said, a sense of pride in his voice.

"Just hanging out," Jason said, leaning on the table. Piper nodded at this and leaned in towards him. Jason blushed, but remained calm. It was clear to everyone that Piper had liked him, and he liked her, they were just too shy to do anything about it.

"Yea, come sit down," Thalia said, patting a spot next to her.

"I have a spot open for you if you want, Percy," Rachel tried, moving her bag. She scooted over a little more, making the spot wide open. I opened my mouth to answer but the noise that came out wasn't my voice.

"I'll sit next to you Rachel," Annabeth answered, sitting down before Rachel could protest. Annabeth gave Rachel a sweet grin, but Rachel Gave her a sickly grin. It was honestly kind of creepy. I was a little thrown off because I wanted to sit next Annabeth but it's alright.

"That's… good with me," Rachel said, seemingly forcing it out. I shrugged and sat next to Thalia. I lightly shoved her to scoot her over, then was met with a punch to the shoulder.

"Ow!" I say, holding my shoulder. Thalia just smiled at me while I glared. A few moments later we both laugh, leaving the rest of the table slightly confused. Nico just shook his head, a small smile tracing his lips.

"Hey," Annabeth started, obviously thinking about something, "Don't you guys think Jason and Thalia look remarkably similar?" Everyone started looking them up and down, inspecting them like pieces of art made by the same artist, trying to find the similarities. Now that she had mentioned it, the two did share a common resemblance. They had the same eyes, same skin tone, same face structure. The only difference was the hair. Jason was a bright blonde, and Thalia had a dark black. Other than that, however, they were almost identical.

"Yea, that's kinda crazy," I said in utter shock. Everyone murmured words of agreement. Thalia simply shrugged and went back to her food, only saying one thing.

"Well, unless he's also the son of Zeus Olympiad, I'm not sure how that would work," she contributed. We continued to talk about all the different similarities before moving on.

"So, what are you guys doing tonight?" I asked, trying to start up another conversation. Everyone took a second to think about it.

"Well," Piper started, being the first person to talk, "Me and Jason are going to go see a new movie after school, then grab a bite to eat. What about you Leo?"

"I'm not sure," he started, still thinking, "probably making drafts for one of my many projects."

"Frank?"

"Probably working out a little bit, but not much else. I'll probably be doing homework though, so don't count on me for being able to make it to any plans."

"Rachel?"

"My dad has a get together tonight so I'm going to be there all night."

"Nico?"

"Whatever you're doing dude, I have no life really." Everyone chuckled. Nico might have been quiet, but when he gave his sassy remarks, he was definitely the most outspoken.

"What about you Luke?"

"I'm free actually," he said setting his phone down, "Wanna hang out?" He looked slightly bored, looking for something fun to do.

"Sure," I said, giving him a smile, "Maybe we can play some video games at my place, I have a pretty good set up."

"I'm down. What do you want me to bring?" I just shrugged. I had quite a lot, food included, so we didn't need much to be brought. In the end, I told him to just bring a few snacks.

"Uh…" I start, but my words get jumbled in my throat, stupid Luke getting me thinking about feelings and crap, "What about you Annabeth?"

"I'm actually free today," she said with a certain look in her eyes, as if this was calculated, "mind if I tag along?" When she asked, Rachel had frowned, but it disappeared as soon as it came.

"Yea!" I say a little too excited, "I mean, yea, that's cool." Inside, I was dying of joy. She was coming to my house! I smiled wide, showing off some of my enthusiasm. Today was going to be good. For me at least.

"Hey, Annabeth?" Rachel started sweetly, giving Annabeth a grin laced with what seemed like pure sugar, enough to make anything sour, "Can I talk to you about a project I need help with?" Annabeth hesitated, but in the end, nodded.

"Sure," she said, standing up, grabbing her things, "Let's talk and go grab something from the vending machine. And with that, they walked away.

It was completely silent, and no one wanted to say anything. No one was sure what had just happened, except for Luke and Thalia. Everyone looked blank faced, doing menial tasks, like eating, or writing.

"So, what are you up to, Thals?" I ask, trying to move forward.

 **Annabeth**

"What do you think you're doing?" Rachel said, looking furious at me. We had just gotten to the vending machines when she decided that it was time to harass me. I had calmly started to put money into the vending machine while I was talking to her, not giving her my eye contact.

"What do you mean?" I ask innocently, plugging in the number of the snack I wanted. A bag dropped, and I grabbed it, moving on to the drink vending machine.

"You _know_ what I mean," she started, walking closer to me, putting a hand on the vending machine, "You're trying to get in between me and Percy!'

"Who, me?" I say, feigning ignorance, "Why, I would never... But even if I would, there isn't a 'you and Percy' to get between." Rachel scoffed at me. She was silent, and angry, and looked murderous. Then, she wasn't.

"Maybe not yet," she said, a sick smirk plastered onto her face, "but at least I don't have anything to hide." This peaked my interest, as I wasn't even aware as to what she was talking about.

"I'm not sure what you're playing at, Rachel, but I've been nothing but honest with Percy."

"Maybe about everything that has been happening currently," she started, smirk only getting wider, "but what about 3 summers ago?"

This time, my eyes widened, not because of sarcasm, but out of fear. There's no way she should have known. We had tried to keep that out of the public eye as hard as we could, the entire situation had disappeared.

"You wouldn't," I say, voice trembling. Any sense of confidence I had was gone. I couldn't believe what was happening.

"You're right," she said, turning around, looking over her shoulder, green eyes looking like pools of venom, "I won't if you leave Percy for me."

"Rachel, please don't do this," I pleaded. I couldn't lose my friend, not like this.

"The choice is yours, Annie," she said with a smug grin, walking away. I leaned against the wall, taking some quick breaths. I closed my eyes tight, fighting against the tears trying to flow like water rushing out of a broken dam. I take a deep breath, calming myself, then open my eyes. For the first time in my life, I wasn't in control, I didn't have a plan, and I had no idea how to fix it. I sighed, then went back to the table.

 **Percy**

Rachel had gotten back a little later, a sweet smile like always. I smiled back, then went back to talking. We had all gotten on the tangent of how there were no good parties in high school.

"I'm not sure man," Leo said, "I think we could throw an awesome party."

"At whose house?" I ask curiously, honestly unsure. I didn't want to throw it at mine, but if worst came to worst, why not?

"Hmmm," Leo said, stroking his fake beard, "I'll let you know about that one while I draft up the plans."

Everyone laughed and Leo's silly antics, then started talking about other tangents. Jason and Thalia were talking about Annabeth's comment of the two looking similar either. Unbeknownst to anyone but me, Annabeth had walked back to the table with a clearly fake smile. Her normally sharp and bright grey eyes were dull, and murky. I'm not sure why I noticed such a small detail, but it bothered me.

"Hey," I say in a low voice, only loud enough for her to hear, "you okay?" Annabeth jumped ever so slightly, looking at me, and giving me the same fake smile, trying to will some sort of energy into her eyes, but they were like windows into her soul, showing every broken piece, every fragment, showing her weakness.

"I'm fine," she said with a small grin, trying to act fine, "You still on for tonight?"

"Yea," I said cautiously, "If you're still up for it. Thalia and Nico will be there too."

She gave me the same smile, and a painful laugh. "Sure, Seaweed Brain," she started with the same broken smile, "I'll be there." The bell rang and we all stood up, grabbing our things. We all started to move towards our classes, chatting about. Part of me couldn't help but worry about Annabeth though, and what had happened when her and Rachel went to talk. I shrugged it off as we walked into class, and we were met with a flurry of sheet music we needed to practice. As much as I loved singing, even this was getting to be annoying.

School finishes, and swimming practice flies – er – swims by. We all meet in front of the school, Annabeth and Thalia looking bored, Nico looking tired. Will walks up to Nico and they start talking again. Annabeth's eyes are still dull and dim, but they are slightly better than earlier.

"Hey, Aquaman," Nico says, but I ignore his nickname, "Do you mind if Will tags along too?"

"The more the merrier," I say with a warm smile.

"You guys ready?" I ask, still drying my hair with my towel. The girls (and Nico) nod, and we head to the cars. Luke hops into mine, and Annabeth into Thalia's. Nico drives off by himself in a white ford focus. Even though we all hated using our dad's money, Nico was probably the most frugal with it. He always bought his own stuff. We started heading up the road when Luke starts talking to me.

"So," he says, playing a game on his phone, "What do you think is up with Annabeth?" He paused his game and looked at me, icy blue eyes calculating, studying me for an unknown reason.

"To be honest," I said, furrowing my eyebrows, still keeping my eyes on the road, "I'm not sure. It's like whatever her and Rachel talked about really got under her skin." I thought back to the redhead and how she looked so content when she got back, like she had gotten exactly what she wanted.

"Yea," he said, looking forward, eyes still calculating, obviously trying to piece things together, "I picked up on that too."

"What do you think it could be?" I asked, taking a quick peek at him. It was easy to see that the two of them were friends, so I had hoped he knew what it could be.

"Well," he said, looking sorrowful, "I've only seen her look this way 3 years ago, but there is no way Rachel would know about it."

"What is it?" I ask curiously. Luke stayed quiet for a bit, before sighing and looking at me. We were at a red light and I took a glance back at him.

"Honestly Perce," he said, a sense of emotion in his eyes that I could barely read. It looked like sadness, but I couldn't be sure, "it's not my story to tell. Don't blatantly ask Annie what happened either. The most I can tell you is that it was traumatic for her. We thought we were going to lose her for a bit."

"What do you mean lose her?" I asked while starting to drive again. Luke kept his glacial eyes trained on me.

"Have you ever seen the light fade from someone's eyes?" Luke asked seriously, but not giving me enough time to respond, "Have you ever seen someone you know and care about slowly slip away into a void that you had no clue existed? Seen someone so strong turn into rubble, wanting to throw themselves off the roof of a building?"

I was left speechless. To think that Annabeth, such a strong and powerful person, was dealing with depression like this. I opened and closed my mouth a few times, not sure of what to say, or if I wanted to say what was on my mind. Luke had faced forward again, eyes still sorrowful. It had gone quiet for a few minutes at this point.

"…Nico…" I say quietly. I see Luke turn to me, confusion written along his face, "… I saw Nico break down… It was 2 years ago. We were hanging out when our uncle called us. H-he… He told us that our cousin Bianca had died. Of course, me and Thalia were destroyed, but Nico was different. See, Bianca was Nico's older sister. **(A/N: I know this isn't correct, but I need it for this story, fight me :P)** Nico was destroyed, but he wouldn't show it… I'm just glad he's here today."

It had gone quiet again. The silence was burning my ears yet was still comfortable. Luke and I had gone through very similar things, knew what it was like to almost lose someone we cared about, and how we could only worry about that person.

"Listen, Perce," Luke said, a certain gleam in his eye, "Annie is like my little sister, and I care deeply for her. Don't let this deter you from being with her. Don't let her problems and past scare you. She doesn't need you to fix anything about her past, or fix anything that happened, she just needs someone there, someone to understand. Got it?"

I looked at Luke with soft eyes, understanding where he was coming from. Nico didn't want to be fixed, he just wanted to be understood after his sister died. "Yea," I said with a soft voice, "I understand." The last 5 minutes of the drive had been quiet, the only noise being my car, and the now present pitter patter of rain on my windshield. When we arrived at me and my cousin's place, Luke's eyes bulged.

"Woah," he said in awe, "You guys live here?"

"Yep," I said, slightly bored. It's not that I didn't like it, but it's just Thalia, Nico and I living here. We didn't need a huge mansion.

"This is sick dude!" Luke said ecstatic. The outside of it was made of brown wood and had black roofing. There were large windows facing out to the front patio, giving the entire house a nice golden glow. Inside the mansion it was homey. On the first floor there were guest rooms, a giant living room, a game room, the kitchen, and a few other random rooms, but nothing too exciting. The crazy part is although we knew it was a mansion, it didn't look it. It looked like a regular home. On the second floor there were the master bedrooms. Thalia, Nico and I each had our own rooms, each having different colors. Mine was blue with a white trim, Nico's was grey with white trim, and Thalia's was Black with white trim. Thalia is the only one who decided to add extra to her paint job and put lightning bolts across the walls. We each had our own computers and laptops, our own beds, and our own bookshelves. We had essentially everything a kid could want.

We were all settled on the couch watching a movie and relaxing. I was sitting next to Annabeth, Thalia was next to Luke, and Nico was next to Will. Everyone was talking lightly and hanging out. The movie finished and we all sat talking for a little bit. Eventually, like kids do, we started to get restless.

"Let's play a game!" Thalia suggested, a smile plastered on her face.

"What game?" Nico asked, sitting up from his leaned back position. Will was still leaning back, hands behind his head.

"Let's play truth-or-dare!" Thalia said, grin turning sneaky and cunning.

"Yea!" Will said, sitting up straight from his spot.

"I don't know guys," Annabeth said, eyes returning somewhat normal for a little bit, "What if it gets out of hand?"

"C'mon Annie!" Luke pleaded, "Live a little!"

"… Fine…" she said begrudgingly. We all gathered in a circle and took our turns. Will insisted on going first.

"Nico! Truth or dare?"

"Dare," Nico said easily. Nico was kinda scary that way, he could just turn everything off and be fearless.

"Hmmm…" Will thought for a second, the smiled, "I dare you to make me some eggs."

"Easy," Nico said getting up, but was interrupted.

"Ah-ah!" Will said, making him stop, "I want them sunny-side-up!"

"Sure," Nico said, walking out. Everyone was confused as to why Will had him cook instead of something like drinking a glass of toilet water. Will just smirked and gave us a well thought out answer.

"Nico told me he hates cooking," he said, leaning back, using his arms to prop himself up, "Now, he suffers, while I benefit."

"You're a psychopath," Thalia said, with a smug grin, "I like it!"

"So, while he is gone who wants to take their turn?" Will asked.

"I'll go for death breath," Thalia said, scanning the group, "Annabeth! T or D?"

Annabeth's eyebrows furrowed as she tried to think of what to say. "Truth…" she said, somehow outweighing that or dare. Thalia's eyes sparked, obviously excited about something. Annabeth caught on and gave a quick sigh.

"Alright," Thalia said, "What do you think of good old Seaweed brain here?" Annabeth blushed like crazy, eyes widening at the same time. Obviously, something was uncomfortable for her. Nico walked back in with the eggs and placed them in front of Will. Will just beamed at him and smiled, but I didn't pay it much mind. I was too focused on Annabeth. I really wanted to know what she was going to say.

"I-I mean," she started, stuttering, "He's cool, funny, athletic, and an all-around great friend. I feel like I could trust him with anything." Upon hearing this, I kinda deflated, not hearing exactly what I wanted, but I was still happy with what I got. I saw Thalia looking at me, eyes telling me what she thought about the things Annabeth had said. I shrugged and motioned for the game to keep playing.

"Alright," Annabeth said, blush almost faded, taking on a determined look, "Thalia, truth or dare?" Thalia gave a smirk, and met Annabeth's eyes with a determination of her own.

"Dare," she says confidently. Annabeth's eyes flared a grey fire, excitement burning.

"Toilet water. Cup. Now," she said simply, smirk on her face. Will kept eye contact, then shrugged, walking into the kitchen, and rummaging through shelves to find a glass. He came back around 5 minutes later with a glass. He went into the bathroom and came back with a nice refreshing glass of toilet water. He looked directly at Annabeth, maintaining direct eye contact, and chugged the entire glass. Annabeth's eyes widened, then furrowed. She crossed her arms then looked back towards the group. Everyone laughed, including me. Everyone else was slightly scared of Will though. Either the dude was insane, or he had guts of steal.

"Alright," started Nico, a sly grin on his face, "Since my dear cousin took my original turn…"

"You're welcome," Thalia cut in.

"… I'll go now," he ended. He looked around, trying to pick his victim like a kid in a toy store. He gave everyone a look, then his eyes set on me. We made eye contact, and I saw his small grin turn into a smirk.

"Percy-" he started before I interrupted him.

"Dare," I say strongly, sipping on my water. I've lived with Nico for years, there's absolutely no way he could catch me off guard. Absolutely no wa-

"Kiss Annabeth," he said bluntly.

"WHAT?!" Annabeth screamed as I did a spit take all over Thalia. We looked at each other, eyes wide, blushing furiously. Annabeth looked away, and I glared at Nico. He couldn't have known, could he?"

"I-I'm not forcing her to do that, Nico!" I said, not wanting to make things awkward between me and Annabeth. We were great friends, I didn't want to lose her this quick.

"Annabeth," Nico said, looking at her, "Can he kiss you for this dare?"

She didn't say anything, choosing to stay quiet. She was looking down at her hands, contemplating something. Her eyes still had gone dim again, light fading, or being suppressed rather. She gave a deep sigh, then looked at me with a gaze that told me how she was truly feeling. She was a broken mess, unsure of how she would make it out of the hole she was in. She gave me a small, accepting smile, then said something, just above a whisper.

"… Fine…"

Nico's eyes widened, Thalia looked excited, Luke looked slightly afraid, and Will looked as if his two favorite characters of a book series were finally getting together, but I didn't pay much attention to them. I was too focused on not messing this up. I took a huge gulp, then met Annabeth's eyes. We were both blushing like crazy, and we slowly started to lean in. I closed my eyes, leaning forward still. I could feel her soft breath on my lips. We were mere inches apart. I leaned in to seal the kiss, and just as I had felt her gentle lips on mine –

*KNOCK*

Someone had knocked on the door rather harshly, causing me and Annabeth to both jump back, not completing the kiss, although very close to it. Thalia groaned, Luke fist pumped, Will fell backwards groaning, and Nico started chuckling to himself. I was still blushing furiously and gave Annabeth a small smile. Annabeth looked back at me, still blushing furiously, and smiled back. I could tell that it was fake though. Her smile was forced, she was still hiding something. Nico, Thalia and I all got up to check who was at the door. When we opened it up, we were confused to see who was there.

Standing in the pouring rain, was a certain blonde with a scar through his lip. His blonde hair was disheveled all over his head, and his eyes looked as if he was crying. He was leaning against the wall outside, looking as if he was sick.

"Jason?" I ask aloud, unsure how or why he was at our place. He just gave me a somber grin and chuckled inwardly slightly.

"Hey, cousins," he said, looking at me and Nico before he met Thalia dead in the eyes, "Hiya, sis." He gave us a quick smile before he passed out, falling unconscious on our floor.

"Holy crap!" Nico yelled, trying to help Jason up. I had jumped to his other said and helped drag our new "cousin" to the couch to prop him up.

"What the hell?" Will exclaimed, jumping up, turning into doctor mode. Nico explained what had happened while I listened, pushing my long black hair back, holding both hands above my head. I turn and looked at Thalia, but she was holding a piece of paper, staring at it with wide eyes. She met my eye site, and before I could even ask, she started crying – Thalia never cries, so this had to be something crazy – and faced the paper towards us. Luke, Annabeth and I all gathered around to read it. Upon closer inspection, we realized it was a birth certificate – okay, Annabeth saw it, I completely breezed past it. We read through it till we got to the names that had signed off on it. His mother was Julia Grace, and his father was Zeus Olympiad…

"He's really our family," Thalia said, still crying, in utter shock. I looked up from the paper and back at Thalia. Her expression showed everything I needed to know about how she was doing. She looked as if everything she took as true was **Torn** in half. Little did we know, but this would be the last time our family was ever normal again…

 **A/N: And that's this chapter done. Sorry it took so long. I've been going through a lot of personal stuff, and frankly, I couldn't pick myself up to finish this chapter. But here we are! I hope you guys enjoy, and I have another announcement.**

 **I'm starting another story. The new one will be nothing like this one. It's going to be raw, uncut, and more drastic. The uphills are mountains and the downhills are cliffs. If you don't want to read it, I won't make you, but I want to try my hand in truly sad writing.**

 **But yea, I'll be updating a bit more consistently, or at least try, I blame college. Thanks for sticking around.**

 **Question: Which blonde character doesn't have a scar?**

 **Peace out girl scouts!**

 **~Rocke**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Yo, what's up guys, Rocke here with a brand-new chapter. My outline file got corrupted, so I need to make a new one, but for now, we're going to wing it. I have a rough idea of what was going to happen in this chapter, so let's hope my memory is true. Now to the reviews!**

 **lolXDDDDDDDD:** **OOOOOOOFFFFFFFF**

 **Ooof indeed my friend.**

 **.in. : Woah! Plot twist! I love it though.**

 **Yea man! Plot twists make the story lol. And thanks! I'm glad this fic is taking off as well as it is. It started off as a stupid idea and here we are! XD**

 **Now I gotta back track bc I suck at actually doing the reviews.**

 **DORKALICIOUS: GR8 till now jealousy to the perfect level though could you have both of them competing a bit harder for percy… it might actually be pretty interesting… But i have a question… are you a boy or girl?:p**

 **Jealousy is hard to write tbh. For me at least. If one of them is too jealous, it makes them look like a you-know-what, or if they aren't jealous enough, it makes them seem like they don't care. And the competition is starting! I promise! :D And just FYI, I am a boy lmao. 18, in college, and a hopeless romantic.**

 **.in. : Love this so far!**

 **This name seems familiar… Thanks lol**

 **ZebraGirl202: It's really good! I hope you post more! :)**

 **I will! I have at least 10 more chapters (not counting this one) to write before their FRESHMAN year is over, so we have a bit of time left lol. As I mentioned in CH 3 I think(?) I want to do all 4 years of high school, then separate into a different fic for college, and then another fic for after college. In total, there will be 60 chapters for Torn, give or take.**

 **So yea! Let's get into CH. 5!**

Annabeth

Everyone spent the night at Percy's, all too shocked to sleep. When the morning came, I walked out to the back patio and sat on a chair I found. The view was stunning. The entire area was landscaped to look like a forest, with a small lake/pond, a small area for what looked like an obsidian bonfire, and a small patch of grass where you could nap under the sky, and look up at the clouds, or at the stars. I took a deep breath and leaned my head back on the chair. I didn't know what to do at all. I had no way to stop Rachel from spreading what she knew besides stop being friends with Percy, but I wasn't going to let that happen. Speaking of Percy, Jason turned up last night with a birth certificate stating that they were related. That was a bit of a shocker to everyone. Sure, Jason and Thals looked similar, but I never expected them to really be family. Jason was still asleep in a guest bed, resting from what seemed like a nasty cold.

I let out a heavy sigh, thinking back to Percy, and how close we were, and how I could feel his warm breath on my lips, how he smelt of ocean water, how his lips felt when they barely grazed across mine.

"Ahem," I heard beside me. I opened up my eyes to see Thalia standing there, usual cocky smile absent, showing me a soft one. "You good, Annie?"

I gave her a painful smile and looked to the backyard. "Honestly?" I ask rhetorically, "Not really no. I think I fell for your cousin, and I'm not even sure if he likes me back, I'm not sure if I should act or wait for him to do it, and even if I wanted to act, I can't because Rachel is holding something that happened in my past above my head, threatening to tell the whole school, and I'm just not sure what to do."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"What do you mean what, it's pretty straight forward," I say, slightly annoyed at her wanting me to repeat myself.

"We'll talk about you crushing on Kelp Head in a second, but what did you mean Rachel is holding something over your head?" Thalia asked, looking concerned. I realized my mistake, and mentally face palmed.

"I-It's nothing," I try brushing off, "Your problems are a bigger concern right now." This seemed to catch Thalia's attention, turning her emotion somber. She looked away, eyes glazing over.

"Yea," she said quietly. Last night, Thalia wouldn't leave Jason's bedside, staying up the whole night. She had dark bags under her bloodshot eyes, probably from crying. I wouldn't blame her, finding out she had a brother when she went her whole life thinking she was alone.

 _*FLASHBACK*_

 _Standing in the pouring rain, was a certain blonde with a scar through his lip. His blonde hair was disheveled all over his head, and his eyes looked as if he was crying. He was leaning against the wall outside, looking as if he was sick._

" _Jason?" I ask aloud, unsure how or why he was at our place. He just gave me a somber grin and chuckled inwardly slightly._

" _Hey, cousins," he said, looking at me and Nico before he met Thalia dead in the eyes, "Hiya, sis." He gave us a quick smile before he passed out, falling unconscious on our floor._

" _Holy crap!" Nico yelled, trying to help Jason up. I had jumped to his other said and helped drag our new "cousin" to the couch to prop him up._

" _What the hell?" Will exclaimed, jumping up, turning into doctor mode. Nico explained what had happened while I listened, pushing my long black hair back, holding both hands above my head. I turn and looked at Thalia, but she was holding a piece of paper, staring at it with wide eyes. She met my eye site, and before I could even ask, she started crying – Thalia never cries, so this had to be something crazy – and faced the paper towards us. Luke, Annabeth and I all gathered around to read it. Upon closer inspection, we realized it was a birth certificate – okay, Annabeth saw it, I completely breezed past it. We read through it till we got to the names that had signed off on it. His mother was Julia Grace, and his father was Zeus Olympiad…_

" _He's really our family," Thalia said, still crying, in utter shock. I looked up from the paper and back at Thalia. Her expression showed everything I needed to know about how she was doing. She looked as if everything she took as true was_ _ **Torn**_ _in half. Little did we know, but this would be the last time our family was ever normal again…_

 _*END FLASHBACK*_

"How's he doing?" I asked. Thalia gave a small grin, still looking towards the backyard.

"Resting," she said, putting it simply, "Doctor Solace said he should be alright." I snorted at the silly nickname. Remarkably through all of this, Will acted as if he had been in the medical field for years, but that couldn't be, he was our age. I shook the idea out of my head. "What about you?" I asked, slightly afraid of the answer. Thalia looked up at me, and I understood.

Her eyes were watery, bloodshot, and had black bags hanging under them. It looked as if she had forgotten to take her makeup off last night. I stood up and put my arms around her. As tough as Thals was, even she needed to cry every now and then. A few seconds later, I hear soft sobs pour into my shoulder, letting every emotion she had bottled up out. I sighed, expecting this year to get a whole lot more complicated…

* * *

 **PERCY**

I sat up from my bed, hair disheveled and tired with a killer head ache. My head had started hurting after hearing about Jason being family and staying up so late. I took a deep breath and get up, dreading the day to come. I look into the mirror and look myself up and down. I had on a blue v-neck, and a pair of white gym shorts. I shrug, then head down stairs. When I get into the living room, I see Will sitting at the coffee table with a small notebook, and a pencil, sketching god knows what. Next to him, I see Nico reading a book. I can't tell what the book is, but knowing that kid, it's probably something demented. I shudder at what it could be.

A little further into the room, I see Luke still asleep in one of the chairs. At first glance, he looks like he could be awake, but his light snore betrays him. The way his things are positioned, it looks as if he was ready to leave at a moment's notice. Aside from how neat it was, it seemed as if he learned how to do this from experience, as if running away was a common occurrence. I took that in and was immediately sad.

I walked into the kitchen to get some juice then made my way back upstairs. When I walked through the hall, I couldn't help but look into the guest room and see Jason. I had no idea what Thalia must be feeling. I always knew I had siblings on my dad's side, so this was completely new to me. I did know that I was going to need to talk to our fathers and see what exactly is going on here.

I got into my room and hopped onto my laptop. I immediately went onto my favorite platform, Soundcloud. It was funny, whenever I told people I used it, they thought I was a rapper. Thankfully, I stayed away from that path. Something about rapping about girls, drugs, and money never seemed to excite me.

I went to my account, _Broken at Best_ , and looked at some of the comments on my music. Most of it was positive, which I was thankful for, yet one person said that he could do better. I smirked inwardly at this.

I clicked off the site and went to check my email. In it were a few emails about random things, forums I had been on, and a few from friends I met. I responded to a few of them, then decided to check my bank account. I logged on and saw my three account statuses. The account linked to my fathers had so many numbers, I didn't put the time into counting it out completely. My personal checking account had roughly $200, and my personal savings had a little over $3,000. I was proud. It took me a bit to actually save all of that up.

I closed my laptop, and went to my closet, thinking about what I would wear. Today was gonna be a lax day, so I decided to wear a pair of black sweats, and a blue hoodie. I took a shower last night, so I was gonna skip for now. That, and I know it takes a bit for the warm water to heat, so I'm going to let the others go first. I put my clothes on and head back down stairs for real this time. By now, Luke was up.

"Morning y'all," I say, raising a hand while I walk past. Nico puts his middle finger up, not really the morning person. Will flashes a quick smile, and Luke decides to follow me.

"Morning dude," he says, slipping his jacket on. Luke looked like it was the first night he got real sleep in a while. I gave him a smile. "Could I get a ride home later?" he asked, as he didn't have a car at the time.

"Yea man," I start, "What time did you want to go?"

"Whenever, I just need to be home tonight."

"Dope," I say, excited to hang out with my friends for a while today, "we'll head home later today then." Luke nodded then sat down at the table, hanging out with me for a little bit. "Hey, where are Thals and Annabeth?" I ask curiously. It had come to my realization that neither of them could be found, and I was worried about Thalia.

"Well," Luke started, leaning back into his chair, "Thalia had gone outside, and I'm pretty sure your girlfriend was out there too."

"Oh, alright," I say, continuing to pull out stuff for breakfast when what he had said hit me, "WAIT WHAT?!" I half screamed the last part, making Will and Nico look up from what they were doing while Luke was laughing his head off. I instantly feel my face flush red.

"I'm just kidding man," he said, wiping a tear away, "But honestly, go for it."

"I don't know man," I start, blush slowly fading, but still remaining lightly prominent, "I don't think she likes me. You saw how she reacted when we had to kiss for the dare."

"Dude, she's crazy for you!"

"I don't know man-" I start but get pegged in the head by a pencil. I look down and realized it was the pencil Will was working with. I look up at him and he's making direct eye contact.

"Do it Perce," he says with a bright smile, "Anyone can see that she likes you, and that you like her." He then stood up, walked over, then handed me a piece of paper. On it was a sketch of Annabeth and I, overlooking a sunset. I looked at him, but he only winked. I gave him a warm smile, and then nodded. It was going to happen today.

"Alright," I said, surrendering finally, leading Luke and Will to cheer, even Nico in his grumpiness gave me a smile, "Now who wants breakfast?"

* * *

 **JASON**

I opened my eyes to a white ceiling that wasn't mine. I sat up and instantly wanted to pull out my eyes. My contacts had dried up, and I didn't have my glasses. Typical.

I looked around the room I was in and was in a slight awe. The room was painted white and had a black décor around it. Black night stands, black desk, black laptop, black bed sheets. Besides being so simple, it looked quite elegant. I stood up and looked in the nearby mirror (that was also black mind you), and realized I wasn't wearing what I had remembered being in.

I was in a light blue V-Neck, and a pair of black gym shorts. My hair looked like I had passed out with my hair wet, not even drying it... Oh wait.

*FLASHBACK*

" _Hey, cousins," I said, looking at Percy and Nico before I met Thalia dead in the eyes, "Hiya, sis." I gave us a quick smile before I passed out, falling unconscious on our floor._

 _*END FLASHBACK*_

 _So,_ I thought, _this is what their house looks like?_ I didn't want to think about the fight I had with my mom and dad last night, so I decided to go exploring a little bit. I ended up piecing the rooms together, finding Thalia's to be the one with electric decals, Nico's to be the room with a skull on the door, not bothering to enter that one, and Percy's to be the one painted blue, giving similar vibes to a beach. I even found a game room!

I decided after my adventures that I would go down to the living room to find some form of life. I made it down to the living room where I heard cheers. I made it down stairs to find Percy at the kitchen, ingredients around him, Luke and Will cheering, and Nico smiling. At the sliding glass door, Annabeth and Thalia had started to walk back in. They both looked like they had just poured their souls out to each other.

"Now who wants breakfast?" I heard Percy say. I saw everyone raise their hands, save Nico and Thalia. They decided to help their – er – our cousin.

"Enough for 7?" I ask, making my presence known. Any happy mood that was present had disappeared…

* * *

 **PERCY**

I had cooked eggs, bacon, and toast, yet no one seemed willing to eat it but Nico and Thalia, and even they seemed to barely pick at it.

"Soooo, no one is hungry?" I asked aloud, wondering why no one was going to eat.

"It's not that we aren't hungry Seaweed Brain," Annabeth said, with a kind smile, "We just don't know if it's safe." I was thoroughly confused at this point. Then I remembered that food typically isn't blue.

"I promise," I start with a light chuckle, "that you won't die. It's an old tradition with my mom." Everyone still seemed hesitant, but one person decided to brave the blue barrage of food.

"Well," Jason started, attracting everyone's attention, "If you say I won't die, then I trust you. What else is family for right?" The word family seemed to echo, but I didn't pay that any mind. I was watching, as was everyone else, Jason's face to see his reaction.

He picked up his fork, and stabbed, some eggs. He raised it up, inspecting it, trying to find any hint of poison in it. He gave me a look, but I only returned it with a smile. He gave a weak one, then looked back to the eggs. He gave a big gulp, closed his eyes, then plunged the fork into his mouth like a roller coaster plunges downwards. After a few chews, his eyes opened. He then quickly stabbed a sausage, and grabbed a piece of toast, eating the two. After he ate the three, he looked up at the group, eyes wide.

"Never in my life," he started, looking at the entire group, "had such a great breakfast."

I fist pumped, and looked at everyone else, waiting for them to try it. I must have looked smug, because Annabeth stuck her tongue out at me. Even this small gesture made me blush ever so slightly. I watched her repeat near the same process that Jason had, eating the eggs.

"Woah," she said, apparently shocked, "This is really good, Perce!" With Annabeth's survival, everyone else had deemed it safe for consumption, and had very similar reactions. Needless to say, I felt like Gordon Ramsay today.

"Alright," Thalia started, dropping her fork, looking directly at Jason, "It's time to talk. How did you find out you were our family? And how did you find out where we lived?" Leave it to Thalia to be straight to the point.

"To be honest," Jason started, setting his fork down, "I was looking at family pictures, and I realized they didn't have any from the hospital, any baby shower pictures, anything. It was like I came out of nowhere." Jason had a somber look on his face, recollecting everything he had gone through the previous day.

"I had asked my mom about it, and she said not to worry about it, and that they were tucked in the attic. When I said I'd get them down, she basically panicked. My dad wasn't much help either. When they went to bed, I went to the safe and pulled out my birth certificate, and there it was, a name that wasn't mine. I remember your last name being Grace, and I'm an office TA so I have a log in. That's where I got the address."

"Woah woah woah," I interrupt, "The Jason, the rule pushing guy who hasn't had a single detention hacked a school site to find our address against our wills?"

"Uhhh…" he said, looking around, unsure if we would rat him out or not, "desperate times?"

It was silent for a little bit after this. Everyone was in shock that he broke the rules. All of a sudden, Luke starts laughing. The entire gang follows suit. Jason visibly relaxes, letting out a heavy sigh, then laughing with everyone.

"Well then," Thalia says after the laughing dies down, a fire prominent in her eyes, "Let's call dear old dad then, shall we?"

Everyone kinda sweat drops, even Jason looks nervous. Nico and I have dealt with our fathers and uncles before, so we aren't too afraid, but it's not typically an occasion we like to have.

"I'll make the call," I say about to stand up, but Thalia stops me.

"No," she says, fully standing up, giving me a sweet smile, something she never does, "I got this." She walked into another room to make the call. I take this opportunity to talk to the others.

"Y'all can stay for a bit longer right?" I ask, "This'll be a show you don't want to miss."

Everyone nods, waiting for the upcoming battle to happen…

* * *

"Thalia?" Zeus calls out, walking through the door. Behind him should be Poseidon and Hades. Having the big three in one spot is always a rare occurrence.

"Percy?" my father shouts as well. The only other person who has yet to say anything is-

"Nico? Where are you three?" Hades says.

"Living room," Thalia calls out. I look to her, making sure she was ready for this to happen. She only offered me a nod. I gave a sigh and mentally prepared for this.

"Oh, hello," Zeus said, seeing us and our friends, "When you called I wasn't expecting you to have friends over."

"Yea," she says, "We had a sleep over last night. I want you to meet Luke, Annabeth, and Will."

"Nice to meet you all, I'm Poseidon, Percy's father," my dad introduces. He's wearing a Hawaiian shirt, and a pair of casual jeans. He has black hair and a thick black beard. His eyes were a piercing green-blue color, much like mine, but much deeper.

"Hades," Nico's dad introduces, shaking hands with everyone, "I'm Nico's father. If one of you could help him wear something other than black, that would be amazing." Hades himself was wearing a black suit with a gold tie. He also had long black hair and a beard, but his beard seemed a bit thinner than Poseidon's.

"Dad!" Nico exclaims, blushing obviously. Nico hated comments about his fashion sense.

"I'm Zeus," Thalia's father proclaims, but not shaking hands with anyone, "And Thalia, I think you forgot to introduce one of your friends. The blonde one back there?" Zeus is pointing at Jason, who is standing with his fist clenched, and jaw tight. If I didn't know any better, he was about to hit his father.

"Oh, you don't know him?" Thalia asks, smile faltering a little bit, making Zeus's face turn confused, "I would have thought you would recognize your son." Zeus's eyes widened, eyebrows furrowed. If there was ever a shocked man, Zeus was it.

"I'm sorry?" he said, emotions flaring. His eyes turned sharp, ready to electrocute everyone in his path.

"You heard me, _dad_ ," Thalia said, matching Zeus's tenacity. Me and Nico exchanged looks, ready for anything to happen.

"Percy, what are these accusations about?" Poseidon asked aloud, not taking his eyes off of his brother. Poseidon was always the calmest of the three, and he knew of his brother's quick temper.

"Trust me," I start, "they aren't unfounded." I was watching Zeus's every move. Thalia and Zeus fought often, so this was no rare occasion.

"Nicolas, is this true?" Hades had asked, sparing his eyes from his brother. Nico did much the same, peering at his father.

"Unless his parents carried a forged birth certificate," Nico started, pretending to think about it for a second, "Then yes, it's real."

"Lies!" Zeus said, making all of our friends nervous, "I don't have a son!"

"His birth certificate says otherwise!" Thalia shouted, "You and mom took my brother from me!"

"Don't talk to me like that!"

"Make me!"

Thalia charged Zeus at the same moment Zeus stepped forward towards Thalia, but we were too quick. I instantly had my arms around Thalia, Nico standing in front of us, stopped Zeus from advancing, meeting face to face with Hades blocking us from Zeus who was being held in a head lock by Poseidon.

"Stop!" Jason yelled. We all turned to him and realized what was going on. "Family isn't supposed to fight like this! A family is accepting, a family is caring, not fighting, not toxic to one another!" His fist was white from how tight he was clenching it. He walked in between Thalia and Zeus, Nico and Hades stepping aside.

"You," he says, pointing at Thalia, "Your – er – our dad made a mistake, is that really something you're going to throw fists about?" Thalia shook herself out of my arms, then looked to the side, not meeting Jason's eye line.

"And you," he starts, looking at Zeus, "I didn't come for money, I didn't come for any of your wealth, I came to find my real family. I came to feel what it was like to not question why your parents had brown hair and why I was blonde. Why they were short but I'm nearly six feet tall. I didn't come for your riches, I came for my family to accept me. If I knew it would have caused this, I would have stayed in my adoptive family."

"Maybe you should have," Zeus said coldly, "You may have my blood, but you'll never be my son."

"Zeus!" Me and Nico yell, angry.

"Brother!" Poseidon and Hades shout, trying to reason with their brother.

"No," Jason says, calming the present storm, but not hiding the one in his eyes, "If he doesn't want me, that's fine. He doesn't have to accept the fact that his mistake caught up to him. I at least had the guts to run straight into the fire."

"Why you insolent little-" Zeus started, breaking free from Poseidon's grasp, charging at Jason. I put myself in between them, Nico following suit. "You dare step to me?" he screams.

"Listen papa spark," Nico says, rolling his wrist, "Either you leave by choice, or we make you."

Poseidon grasped Zeus's shoulder tightly, Hades doing much the same, practically pulling him out.

"I'm sorry about him, I'll get it sorted out Nephew," Poseidon says while dragging Zeus out.

"It's nice to have you, Jason," Hades said with a cold, yet caring smile, "As much as Thalia is my favorite niece, it is glad to have another nephew around here."

"Hey!" I exclaim.

"You know I didn't forget about you, Percy."

Five minutes go by, and they evacuate, leaving our group alone at the house. Annabeth looks like she saw world war three break out, Luke looks like he's ready to fight, hand occasionally grazing over his pocket knife, Will looks cautiously at Nico, trying to make sure he was okay. Nico is sitting at the table, hands intertwined, resting his chin on them, Thalia was pacing, and I was sitting on the couch, looking at the ceiling. No one could tell what Jason was feeling. He looked both mad, sad, and calm at the same time.

Jason looked up from his thoughts, eyes clearing slightly. "Anyone want to go to the mall? I could use something to cheer up."

Everyone had looked around at each other and nodded. Everyone could use the same. Thalia decided to split everyone up into different cars, Luke with herself, Nico and Will, Jason borrowed a car our dads left for us just in case one of ours broke down, and I drove with Annabeth. After we got that situated, we hit the road…

* * *

We were in the car, around halfway there, sitting in a deafening silence. I looked at Annabeth, but she was staring out the window. I turned on some light music in the background just to make some noise. I turn to look at Annabeth one more time, then back to the road. I took in a deep breath, then let out a heavy sigh.

"Can I ask you something?" I question aloud, starting to drive again. Annabeth looked at me with a curious look.

"Only if I can ask you a question too."

"Sure, why not?" I say jokingly. I pull off to the side of the road and park, wanting to be able to look at her when I asked. "Luke and Will and Nico and Jason say that you like me and I just wanted to clear the air and see if-" I start, but get interrupted.

"Yes."

"Gotcha, I knew you didn't, I just want-" I start before realizing what she had said, "Wait, what?"

"Yes, I like you Percy. I've liked you since the moment I looked into those sea green eyes, and it killed me to hurt you like I did." Annabeth looked at me as if she hadn't just confessed a deep secret. Like she didn't care if I knew or not.

"Oh," I said, unsure of what to say. Was it my turn?

"Now for my question," she started, looking down slightly, not meeting my eyeline, "Do you like me?"

I put my finger under her chin and lifted up her face so that she was looking at me. We sat there, staring into each other's eyes. My sea green against her stormy grey. Two window panes made in two different factories meeting to create a mosaic of colors. I was about to open my mouth to talk, but I was interrupted by a pair of somewhat familiar lips crashing onto mine. I looked to see what happened, and was met by Annabeth's closed eyes, shut in a determined fashion. I smiled inwardly, and joined into the kiss.

I took it all in. Her lips, her scent, her passion. I let myself lose everything I had. My resolve, my act of being strong in current crappy situation I was in, it all washed away. Any feelings I had for her before? They were doubled, magnified by a catalyst of emotions, creating dependence, an addiction to this. After what felt like an eternity of pure bliss, we pulled away from each other.

We were breathing hard, unsure of where to move on. We both looked at each other again, but it was different. It wasn't filled with fear of messing whatever had up. It wasn't filled with pain or drama. It was… easy. It was as if every worry or doubt we had about each other was cleared. I gave a light chuckle, then turned back to the road with a big smile on my face.

"Before I was interrupted," I start, making Annabeth laugh lightly, "I was going to say yes. There was no doubt in my mind that I liked you."

"I'm glad," Annabeth said, letting out a breath I'm not sure she even knew she was holding, "I thought I ruined everything."

"Nah, we're good," I say giving her a bright smile, "Uh, does this mean we're dating now? Because if so, I need to take you on a date, and meet your parents and-" I still had a few more items on my list, but I was silenced by Annabeth's lips recapturing mine. She pulls away a moment later, not wanting to have the kiss continue into something more.

"I'll take that as a yes," I say with a small smirk. Annabeth rolls her eyes but keeps a smile on her face.

I pull back onto the road, but the rest of the way, our hands are intertwined, sitting in a comfortable silence. I guess I finally got my Wise Girl.

 **A/N:** **SO, I'M SORRY! It's been like, 30 days I'm pretty sure. I've been hitting writers block recently, and shit's been happening in life. I broke up with my girlfriend of 3 years, making this chapter especially hard to write, I lost a family member, and I lost a good friend to suicide. I've been through the loop this December. But, here we are! I promise to make the next chapter sooner!**

 **I thank everyone who checked up on me, and everyone who stuck with the story, and want to say thank you all for all the support!**

 **Much love and Happy New Years!**

 **~Rocke**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N:** **Yo, what's up y'all. Welcome to Chapter 6! I'm gonna work on updating them a bit sooner, but it'll still take time lol.**

 **Anyway, lets hop right in.**

 **DISCLAIMER: I don't own PJO or the HoO Series, as much as I wish I did.**

* * *

 **PERCY**

We had just parked, and right as I opened my door to get out, I was pulled back into the car. I turned and realized the only person who could have done it was Annabeth. I gave her a curious look, unsure as to why I was pulled back into the car. She gave me a slight grin, then raised our conjoined hands.

"Yes?" I ask, unsure of what she was referring to. She rolled her eyes, but still had a small smile on her face.

"I'm not sure how the others would react to _this_ ," she said, referring to our hands. Then it hit me like a steel beam. The others didn't know yet!

"Wanna find out?" I asked with a sly smile. Annabeth pecks me quick on the lips, then shrugs. Then, like clockwork, she gets her thinking face on. She's come up with an idea, remarkably fast if I do say so myself, which I do.

"Sure," she says, as she puts everything together in her head, "Here's how we'll do it." She then starts explaining the plan, and man is it a good idea. I gotta say, it's a plan worthy of Athena…

Plans changed about midway through, and we ended up going to an amusement park rather than the mall. We meet up with the group and the front gates of the amusement park. Nico, Will, Thalia and Luke are all arguing about some show they watch. Nico and Luke on one side while Will and Thalia are on the other. A little further from the group are Jason and Piper, holding hands. That was a new development, but I guess me and Annabeth had no room to talk. When the group saw us walk up, they all gave us warm smiles.

"You guys are late," Thalia said with a wink, causing everyone to laugh, "Care to explain why?"

Everyone eyed us down, but only Annabeth seemed to be caught under the pressure. Annabeth's mouth opened and closed a few times, but nothing came out.

Everyone took that as confirmation, but our plan had to happen! I put my hand on Annabeth's shoulder, and looked to the group. I sighed inwardly and knew the only way to make it seem believable is if something embarrassing happened.

"Hey, leave us alone," I said, drawing all the attention to me, "It's not Wise Girls fault that I thought the fart was safe!" Like clockwork, everyone's gazes turned, curious, picking apart what I had just said. It went from confusion, the humored, then to disgust. The only person who seemed slightly curious was Luke.

"But," he said, eyes squinting, "You're wearing the same pants!" I slapped myself mentally for forgetting the one flaw in my plan! I was stuck, I had no response, but thankfully, Annabeth came to the rescue.

"Surprisingly, it didn't leak through that far," she started, punching my arm, giving me a look of thanks, "Thank god you had that pair of spare underwear from swimming. Now, are we done being interrogated?"

Annabeth put her hands on her hips and glared at everyone. Their expressions went from sweat drops, to looking in other directions, to pure fear. Our answers seemed to sate the group appetites, and we made our way to the front.

When we got in, our senses were flooded. Colors popping, smells intoxicating, and the ever present happy mood. I looked towards the group in awe, as their emotions were much the same. We all made our way to the cotton candy stand and got our own colors. I got blue, Annabeth also got blue because she wouldn't get pink, Will got yellow, Luke got Pink because he said, and I quote "Pink is a manly color," Thalia and Nico somehow both got Black cotton candy, Jason got blue, and Piper got pink.

We were walking and laughing, talking about whatever was on our mind. We were happy just being teenagers. That is, until I tripped… Falling right into Annabeth, covering her shirt in bright blue cotton candy…

* * *

 **Will**

It had looked like all hell was about to break loose. Annabeth was furious.

"What the hell, Percy!" she screamed, looking as if she was gonna rip his head off.

"Oh my god," he started, standing up, trying to help, but Annabeth wouldn't let him, "I'm so sorry, let me help."

"I think you've done enough!" she yelled, pushing him away.

"Yo, what's you're deal?" Percy asked, thrown off by getting pushed.

"The deal," she started, spitting venom with every word she said, "is that you ruined my favorite shirt!"

"Ever heard of an accident, Princess?" He retorted.

"Woah, woah," Thalia and Luke stepped in between the two," calm it down you two."

"Princess? Well I'm sorry that I like to keep the things I have nice! Not all of us were born with silver spoons in our mouths!"

"Are you really calling me stuck up? That's rich coming from the girl who bullied me for my dyslexia!"

"Guys!" Nico yelled, getting everyone's attention, "Cool it!"

"No, you know what?" Percy questioned loudly, "I'm done. I never should have accepted your apology the first time."

Annabeth looked slightly taken aback by this. She looked as if she had been stabbed in the back. "Oh yea?" she questioned back, "Well I never should have apologized!"

The two gave one last huff then stormed off.

"Guys! Wait!" Thalia called out, but to no avail, "We need to talk to them, they are supposed to be dating soon, not stop being friends!"

"Thalia, Nico, Piper, you go talk to Annabeth," I say confidently, "You two know Percy a lot better than us, you'll be able to explain what's going through that head of his."

"And what about you?" Nico asked, curiously. I'm not sure if he was worried about where I was going, or if it was just figuring out the entire plan, but I definitely felt butterflies.

"Jason, Luke and I are going after Percy," I say with a small smirk, "he needs to hear from an outside perspective." Nico and Thalia nodded, then went looking for Annabeth. I turned to look and nodded, walking towards where Percy ran. Little did we know how long it would take to find him…

-Line Break-

It had been roughly 30 minutes of pure walking looking for Percy. I swear, when I find him I'm going to punch him… Then give him an ice pack…

"Stop, stop," Luke said, doing exactly as he said, standing still. I gave him a questioning look, but he only gave me a small smirk. "Percy is a swimmer, loves music, sword fighting, and sea life."

"Okay?"

"Why are we spending time looking at useless crap when we know what he likes?" he asked, giving an even bigger smirk. _By the gods, he's right!_

I mentally smacked myself. "There was an aquarium about 5 minutes back," I say, new found energy. We both took off running into a watery building, looking for a certain green-eyed kid. We walked for what felt like 30 seconds before we found Percy making eye contact with a pufferfish. The fish was looking back though so that was interesting.

"Percy!" Jason exclaims, running up to him with Luke by my side, "What's up man?" Percy just looked at us as if questioning if we saw what had just happened.

"I got in a fight with the girl of my dreams and basically said I didn't want to talk to her ever again," he said dully, "I made a fool out of myself in front of a crowd, and bolt like a child, and you ask what's up?"

"Hey, c'mon," Luke tried, going up to him and putting a hand on his shoulder, "you didn't make a fool out of yourself. An idiot maybe, but not a fool." I face palmed and Percy gave him the side eye.

"Ohh, thanks Luke," he said sarcastically. I gave Luke a glare, but he only shrugged.

"What he is trying to say," I say, looking back to Percy, "is that you two can still come back from this."

"Yea, right," he said unbelievingly, looking back at the pufferfish, "And I can breathe underwater."

"He's not wrong," Luke tried, putting a hand on Percy's shoulder, "Annabeth isn't one to give up after one fight." Percy looked back at Luke with hope in his eyes, but it was mixed in with insecurity, and doubt.

"Listen guys," he said, looking between the both of us, "Even if we could somehow mend our friendship, I'm not even sure how I would do that." It was only a moment after that I had a brilliant idea.

"Wait," I start, attempting to put the thought of Annabeth aside for a little bit, "Let's go cheer up, then we'll talk about how you get her back. I have an idea, but you might want to eat first." Percy nodded, then followed me and Luke. Luke and Jason gave me a questioning look, but I only winked. Well, I also sent a text to the group – except Annabeth and Percy – telling them to bring Annabeth to the amphitheater. This was going to work, or my name isn't Will Solace.

* * *

 **NICO**

It's hard you know? Living with an idiot cousin. Hell, living by itself is hard enough when your relationship with your dad is tense, your mom is dead, and you live with two other adolescents. But, I digress. The time for complaining was later, because right now, I had to fix Percy's mess again.

"So," I start, looking at Thalia, the scarier of my two cousins, and Piper, the beauty queen, "Where do we start looking?"

"Well," Thalia began, entranced in thought, "she loves architecture, and is a general nerd at that, so somewhere along those lines."

We began to think about places that would be architecturally fascinating here, but at an amusement park, there wasn't much. We spitballed a few places, but couldn't match one to Annabeth, at least, not enough to draw her attention. That's when it hit me.

"Wait," I say looking at the two with wide eyes, "What if we're looking at this wrong?"

"What do you mean? Annabeth would definitely be somewhere that she could inspect a building."

"Exactly, but what if it's not an amazing building…" I pause, letting Thalia finish it.

"But one that's unsafe!" Thalia concludes.

"She's at the house of mirrors!" Piper exclaims. We bolt in the direction of the now deemed "House of Safety Code Violations," not taking a breath till we get there, and see Annabeth, staring at it glumly.

"Annie!" Thalia exclaims, receiving a cold glare from the aforementioned blonde, "what are you doing over here?"

"Pulling apart how unsafe and impractical this building is," she said, turning back to the seemingly glass house, "Someone made this with care, thinking it was a beautiful idea, something that will be admired for decades, but all it takes is one rock, one pebble, and it all comes crashing down."

Piper and Thalia exchange glances, unsure of what to say. "Are you taking about you and Percy, or the house?" I ask cautiously. She looks back at us with tears in her eyes.

"It's funny isn't it?" she starts, wiping the tears away and sniffling lightly, "At first, I thought I was talking about the house, but the more I thought about him, the less I could differentiate the two."

"I know it seems rough Annabeth, but I promise you Percy still cares about you," Piper said, each word seeming oddly inviting, and truthful. Annabeth slightly scoffed and walked over to the group.

"Really? And how can you be so sure?" she asked, as if begging for an answer, wishing for it to be true.

"Because as stupid as my cousin is," Thalia replied, putting a hand on Annabeth's shoulder, "he is as loyal as a dog, and he'll follow you to the edge of the Earth, no matter how many times you kick him down."

"Maybe…" Annabeth said, going back into thought. She looked at the house again, I assume to try and think of it being put back together shard by shard, piece by piece. I looked at a text on my phone, and smirked. That blonde was as smart as he was cu- cool, Will was cool, not cute. Duh.

 _Or was he?_ I thought, unsure of how I felt about the blonde hair, tan skinned future doctor. Did I like him? Who knows. What I do know, is that I gotta solve one love story first.

"How about we get something to cheer you up?" I recommended, grabbing Annabeth by her shoulder, looking in her eyes, "We'll get a soft pretzel, and watch some of the performers, and forget about Percy for a little bit." She simply nodded, still looking down. I swear, if Percy broke Annabeth, I was going to stab that merman.

* * *

 **PERCY**

Surprisingly, everything was falling into plan just as Annabeth had thought. Well, almost everything. She called who would comfort who, that they would try and push the relationship again. What she hadn't suspected is their solution. Annabeth thought they would stick us on the tunnel of love and we'd make up – or make out rather – and that'd be done with. Apparently, Will preferred a song.

We were in the amphitheater and I was backstage, scared of what was about to happen. Will had said that Annabeth was inside, and so were Thalia, Nico, and Piper.

 _Great_ I thought, _Now all my friends get to see me embarrass myself._ I peeked through the curtain, and found them.

"Are you sure this will work?" I asked Will, sweat dropping from the anxiety. Wills eyes gleamed at me, excited. Jason and Luke looked at me with smiles too. _Why did all the blonds come and comfort me?_ I thought curiously.

"Of course!" he said in an excited whisper, "After you finish your song, you two will be together again, I promise."

"One problem with this plan," I start, looking at the three, all having questioning faces, "I don't have a song prepared!" Will and Jason both looked at each other, wide eyed. They hadn't thought of that. Luke face palmed, then walked up to me. He had a serious yet brave face on.

"Listen Perce," he started, looking at me dead in the eyes, "You don't need a song prepared to say how you feel, sing from your heart." I looked at him incredulously.

"This isn't a movie Luke!" I exclaim, getting a few glares from other performers.

"Just do it will you!" he scream-whispered back, "You got this, don't stress. You're also on in 5, good luck!"

"Wha-?" I asked, but was interrupted, being pushed on stage. As soon as I got past the curtain, I was blinded by strong stage lights. I could feel the heat from 20 feet away. I looked around and saw all the eyes, and instantly felt sick to my stomach. I was a performer, but I've never been so unprepared. I walked up to the microphone, and tried my best not to make a fool out of myself. As I got closer, I accidentally smacked the mic stand with my guitar, then almost tripped trying to catch it. The crowd was silently judging me, and I could feel it.

"H-Hi," I said nervously, "I-I… I had a, uh…" Through my stuttering, I looked and saw Annabeth, her eyes were shining, brighter than the stage lights, my sea green eyes against her stormy grey. As I looked into her eyes, everyone else faded away. I took a deep breath, then started my introduction again.

"My names Percy Jackson," I start, still looking at Annabeth, "And I got in a fight with someone I care about, and I guess this is my way of saying I'm sorry, and yea, I hope you enjoy."

I take a seat on the bench provided, and prop up my guitar, and start strumming, strumming a tune that I'm confused where it came from, but here we are right?

After a few measures, I break into vocals. Like Luke said, I got it directly from my heart.

 _This is the start of something beautiful_ _  
_ _This is the start of something new_ _  
_ _You are the one that make me lose it all_ _  
_ _You are the start of something new, ooh_

 _And I throw it all away_ _  
_ _Watch you fall into my arms again_ _  
_ _And I throw it all away_ _  
_ _Watch you fall, now_ _  
_

I look down, a simple smile on my face. Every word I sang felt true. Maybe we got together today, but something felt… perfect about it. As if we were meant to be together.

 _You are the earth that I will stand upon_ _  
_ _You are the words that I will sing_

 _And I've thrown it all away_ _  
_ _Watch you fall into my arms again_  
And I've thrown it all away  
Watched you fall, now

 _and take me back_ _  
_ _Take me home_ _  
_ _Watch me fall, down to earth_ _  
_ _Take me back, home_ _This is start of something beautiful_ _  
_ _You are the start of something new_

I finish strumming, and I look back at Annabeth, and see her eyes are glazed over, and I see a smile cross her face. That smile could make me lose my mind. The crowd stands up and applauds, but I could care less about them. I see Annabeth stand up, and run towards me. I push my guitar back, the strap catching it, swinging onto my back. A moment later, Annabeth tackles me in a hug. I catch her after taking a few steps back for balance, then hug back. She pushes back slightly, then kisses me. A passionate kiss, yet short, and sweet. I look over at Will, Luke and Jason, and they are all applauding, Luke giving me a thumbs up. Nico, Thalia and Piper are all applauding too. We walk off stage, letting the next performers come up, and as I do, I can't help but to notice a flash of red hair, but just as soon as it was there, it was gone.

-LINE BREAK-

"So, you guys are finally together?" Thalia asked somewhat happily. I gave a wide grin and raised me and Annabeth's conjoined hands. Thalia smiled at us, then a look of annoyance flashed across her face. "Damnit…" she said angrily. Luke just walked up and put his hand out, Thalia putting a crisp $20 bill in his hand.

"Wait," Annabeth asked confused, "You guys were betting on us getting together?" Thalia nodded, and Luke smiled at his new-found money. "Damnit!" Annabeth said pretty loudly, pulling out her own $5 bill and putting it in my hand.

"I told you Thalia would," I said, pocketing the cash, "She has a gambling problem." Thalia was about to protest but then submitted, accepting the fact of her issue. Jason and Piper were laughing. Will and Nico were off talking at a table. We wanted to find out what they were saying, but Nico liked to have privacy in some parts of his life, so we found it best not to annoy him.

We had started talking about random stuff we wanted to do, Piper trying to get Annabeth to agree to a double date, while Annabeth shut it down saying they were pretty much already on a quadruple date, making Thalia and Luke blush, and turn away from each other. At least, we were talking until a man in a Black suit came up. He had trimmed white hair and a beard, looking awfully official. Thalia tensed, hating suits, probably something to do with Zeus.

"Sorry to interrupt," the man started, a gentle smile on his face, "You were the boy who just sang on stage right?" After living with Thalia for so long, she became my sudo-manager, so I often looked to her for a bit of help in situations like these. When I looked to her this time, she simply nodded.

"Yea? My name is Percy," I say, or asked I guess, slightly curious as to why it mattered. The man pulled out a card and held it out to me. I took it and read it, surprise washing over me.

 _Lyre Records (TM)_

 _Amphion Lyre_

 _226 Maple Street  
Poughkeepsie, NY 12603_

 _1(xxx)xx8-5863_

"You have amazing talent kid," he started, eyes gleaming with kindness, "and I'd love to get you into my studio, and potentially sign you."

"Really?" I ask confused, "You saw one song and you're thinking of signing me, and 16-year-old?" Thalia facepalmed at my bluntness.

Amphion just chuckled. "Normally, I'd call this crazy too," he admitted, "But there's something about you kid. It's a passion for you, it's not just music or singing, you're not focused on getting famous, you're just singing for whoever will listen, and I like that about you." I looked back at the card, then back to him, still unsure. "If you don't want to, that's completely okay, but why not come over, check out the studio, then make your choice?"

"Alright," I said, returning the smile, "When works best for you?" The kind man simply shrugged, leaving it up to me. "Wednesday after school?"

"Sure," he said, giving me a thumbs up, "See you then, Percy." Amphion walked away, briefcase in hand. I looked back to the group slightly confused.

"Did that really happen?" I asked, still unsure. Annabeth laughed and rolled her eyes, Thalia smiled and gave me a fist bump, Jason and Luke put their arms around me football player style I guess, and Piper was congratulating me. We talked about how cool it would be to be signed to a record label and be producing music. Amidst the conversation, I looked over at Nico and Will. I'd have to tell Nico later, I guess. I wonder if he'd play bass for me occasionally?

-LINE BREAKKKAKKAKAK-

We were leaving the amusement park trying to figure out what to do next. Luke said he had to head home, so Thalia took him. Piper's dad called her, so she left too. This left Annabeth, Jason, Nico, Will and I.

"Soo, what now?" I asked, curiously. Jason pulled out his phone to check the time. It was a little past 6, and everyone was hungry.

"I'm down for whatever," Nico said, "As long as I get to sleep tonight, I was up till 3 AM last night, and I'm running on fumes."

"Nico!" Will exclaimed, worry evident in his voice, "You said you'd go to bed!"

"And you said you'd take a break from taking care of Jason yesterday," Nico countered smoothly. That shut Will up quite easily.

"Well," Jason started, "We do have tomorrow. Wanna see a movie later with everyone?" Although he asked, we could all tell Jason wasn't asking, but was pretty much ending the day. We all shrugged then got in our cars and headed home.

* * *

We got home about 30 minutes later, all tired. When we walked in, we saw Thalia at the table doing homework, (surprisingly) and reading her school books. I looked at Nico with a questioning look. He returned the same look then shrugged. I looked back to my other cousin before speaking up. "You good, Thals?" She just nodded and kept studying sparing very few words.

"My teacher called me stupid, I'm studying to prove her wrong." It all cleared up there. She wasn't willingly studying, she just has a point to make.

"Gotcha," I say, with a small smile, "Don't hurt yourself, Me and Annabeth-"

"Annabeth and I," said blonde interrupts.

"-are going to my room. Nico and Will are here too." I finish. We start walking up the stairs to my room when Thalia calls me.

"Percy!" she shouts throughout the house. I roll my eyes, then shout back.

"What?"

"Don't make me an aunt yet! I'm too young to watch little Percy!"

Me and Annabeth – sorry, Annabeth and I- start blushing furiously. I facepalm, and Annabeth starts laughing nervously.

"Are you blushing?" she calls one more time, but I shout back a few choice words, "Oh they're totally blushing."

We get to my room and close the door, blush still furious. Annabeth has slowly gotten her cool under control, but I'm still blushing. _Stupid Thalia,_ I thought.

"So, what do you want to watch?" I ask my guest, turning on my TV and fire stick.

"Do you have Law and Order?" she asks, I swear I could almost feel my heart burst, but I have to ask one question first.

"Which one?"

"SVU, duh."

"Marry me," I say in a dead serious voice. The show was my literal favorite, and she liked it too, we're practically perfect for each other.

"Maybe later," she dismisses, with another furious blush, "put on the show." I chuckled, then sat down next to her on my bed, pillows against the wall so our backs wouldn't hurt, and covered ourselves with blankets. As we started our marathon, Annabeth put her head on my shoulder and I draped my arm on her shoulders, pulling her closer. I fell asleep halfway through the first episode, the scent of lemons playing with my nose. Life was confusing, but I could live with how it's going right about now.

* * *

 **NICO**

Will and I were in my ever dark room, his hair looking like the sun in the middle of space, his blonde locks clashing against my dark ceiling.

"We need to get more color in here," he said, looking around, "God even your underwear are _black_." I push my drawers closed and look up at him. He's only 2 inches taller, but you can definitely tell the difference.

"How about we stop judging my choices in color?" I ask, poking him in the chest, "black matches with literally everything, so everything fits."

"But black doesn't look good on black," he retorted, "It's so basic, any child could match black with black. Add flair, add color to your life."

"Listen," I say letting out a slightly annoyed huff, "When I'm looking for some change, or when I'm dating someone, I'll add some color to my wardrobe. Deal?"

"Deal," Will said with a confident smile. I thought that was the end of it and turned around to flop onto my bed when he asks me a question. "Hey Nico?"

"What?"

"Will you go out to dinner with me?" He asks, confident smile ever present, but eyes flashing with a feel of nervousness. I was in utter shock.

"Excuse me?" I ask in a voice slightly above a whisper.

"You, me, dinner?" I was in shock. The audacity, the courage, the gall! How did he know? How could he know? I mean, yea, I had a crush on him, but how did he know I was gay? Wait, that means he's gay.

"Nico?" he asked, bringing me out of my thoughts. I looked at him, probably beet red at this point. All I could do is nod. He gave me the same bright smile he always does, then comes and gives me a hug. I swear, if I wasn't so badass, I would have melted in his arms.

"C'mon," he started, pulling me to the bed, "Let's watch a movie." We put on a random movie, but we didn't watch it. We were entranced by each other the entire time…

* * *

 **Thalia**

"Finally!" I exclaimed, pulling my paper up. It was full of notes that would prove to the teacher that I wasn't stupid and that she was wrong. My masterpiece. I look around and realize everyone had gone upstairs. It was dark outside, and it was around midnight.

I stretch then turn off the downstairs lights. I go upstairs and check on Percy and Annabeth. Like anyone could have guessed, they were cuddling, looking as if they were holding on for dear life. Percy was on his side, holding Annabeth, while she was on her side looking into his chest, fast asleep. They looked super comfortable and peaceful at the same time. I walk into the room, turning the TV off, and pulling the covers over them. At the movement of the blanket, Annabeth curls farther into Percy, while he gladly accepts in and holds on to her harder. If it wasn't my best friend and my cousin, it'd be decently cute. I close the door to his room as I walk out, then go to check on Nico. I know he doesn't sleep, but Will might, so I walked in decently quiet. What I saw I didn't expect, however.

* * *

 **PERCY**

I wake up from my dreams to a scream. I quickly look at Annabeth, but see that she is still in my arms, although just as confused as I am. I tell her to wait, then stand up, grabbing a nearby wooden sword replica, then rush out of my room. I see Thalia covering her eyes in front of Nico's door.

"What's going on?" I ask sporadically, rushing to Nico's door, "is Neeks okay?!" Before my female cousin can stop me, I rush in.

"Percy, wait!" she screams, but it's too late. I rush in and see Nico on top of will, shirts were thrown askew, pants still on thank god, but I wasn't sure for how much longer. I immediately flush.

* * *

 **NICO**

I can't believe it. Both of my cousins are now in my room, watching me make out… with another boy. Now, normally, this wouldn't be a problem, except, they don't know that I'm gay. I've never told them, and I'm not sure how they would react. I didn't know if they would treat me differently, so I kept it hidden. I knew I had to try and cover this up.

"Guys wait!" I exclaim quickly and loudly, waving my arms around, "It's not what you think! We were just – uh – wrestling!" _Go, Nico,_ I think to myself, _you're an idiot._

"Oh really?" Percy asks with a small grin, "This is wrestling?" Thalia snorts in the background. I am immediately confused. They… aren't mad?

"Wait," I ask cautiously, "You aren't mad?" Percy looks and me with a sneer.

"You think we'd be disgusted by you making out with a boy?" He asked, sounding as if I'd punched him, "Dude, we're your cousins, we'd accept you if you had 5 nipples."

"Speak for yourself," Thalia said, stepping in closer, arms crossed, small smirk, "After 4 nipples it gets hard for me to deal with."

"So, you guys don't care that I'm gay," I start, asking one last time, "And that I'm making out with a boy?"

"You do you, boo boo," Percy said, standing up and stretching, "As long as you're not doing it in my bed, I'm fine with it." I immediately flush again at his comment, Will chuckling lightly in the background.

"Can you guys not tell everyone yet?" Will asks, "Nico wants to come out when he is ready."

"Your secret is safe with us," Thalia says, offering a kind smile, before turning to an evil one, "Or is it?" I pale, but she laughs after, making me laugh too. By the end of it, everyone is laughing. That is, until Annabeth comes in.

"What's going ooon- Will?" she says, making me flush again, "Correction, Nico's going on Will. Cute." Annabeth gives us a warm smile, then helps Percy up. They say their good nights, then head back to bed. Thalia waves us one more uncharacteristic good night, then heads out, closing the door behind her. I look back down at Will, and he still has the same goofy grin he had when the others walked in.

I make the executive decision to continue where we left off, having the best night of my life.

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **The long-awaited CH 6 is here! Sorry I've been gone for so long y'all. I had to get to a point where I was comfortable writing relationship stuff again.**

 **Also, because someone DM'd me asking if I was straight or gay because of the whole Solangelo ship, I am straight but it's a great ship so it's staying, and I'll fight all who say otherwise!**

 **Anyway, that's it for me this time. Love you all, and thank you for all the support.**

 **-Rocke**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:** **Here we are again! CH. 7! I'm writing this almost exactly after I wrote chapter 6, so yea. I hope y'all enjoy! I've also thrown out my outline, but that's okay, it was all a rough draft anyway, I don't need it. YOLO!**

 **BEFORE WE START THIS STORY, I released a new one! It's called** _ **Live**_ **, and it's honestly my favorite story idea I've written so far. Please, go check it out, and leave a review if you think I need to change anything!**

 **DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN PJO OR HOO, THOUGH IT'D BE DOPE.**

 **LEO**

I wake up with a start, pulling my head up from my work bench. I look around, finding nothing out of the ordinary. I sighed deeply and stood up. I pushed aside my keyboard. On my monitor was a small command prompt. I've been trying to get into the schools' servers all weekend, but it wouldn't click. I had to have been missing something, but I was drawing blanks.

I looked out my window, looking at the kids playing at the park across the street. It was relatively early, but 9 is early for me, so maybe it's just me. I walked to the bathroom and splashed water on my face, picking my head up, and looked into the mirror.

What I saw looking back at me, I was relatively proud of. I had messy brown hair that suited me, as well as chocolate brown eyes that fit well. I had relatively clean skin, occasional oil smudge, but no acne so woo!

I pulled on a

-Line Breakakakakkakakakakakakaakkaka-

It's been another 3 hours and I still haven't gotten into the server. I pushed away from my desk, leaned back in my chair, then put my hands on my eyes, rubbing my strained eyes.

I keep my eyes closed for what feels like 5 minutes when I hear my phone go off. I pick it up absentmindedly and take a peak at who it could be that was texting me. Surprisingly, it's Jason. He's asking if I wanted to go see a movie with him, Piper, Percy, and Annabeth.

Desperate to get out of the house and focused on something else, I send a quick reply. I pick up my yellow pullover, slip on some black sweats, and a pair of black running shoes, then make my way to the garage. Before I leave the house, I write a note telling my mom and dad that I'd be out.

My wallet and keys are still in the car. It's in a garage, why pull them out? I take a glance at my old beat up Toyota truck, then hop in with a small grin on my face. Flashbacks of piecing this thing back together from the junk yard was definitely a project, but I loved every second of it. The inside was all custom and looked a lot newer than the outside of it.

 _I'll buff it out later_ I'd say, ignoring my dad's pleas. To be honest, I loved the rough exterior. It was kind of like me I guess. A little rough on the outside, but pure awesomeness on the inside.

I hop in and start the engine. I put on my seatbelt and wait for my console to pop up. As if on cue, the monitor turns on, showing a small golden dragon in the top right corner.

" _Good Afternoon, Leo_ ," the AI spoke, " _How are you today?"_

I got one of my old friends to voice it, and it was probably the last thing I had to remember of him. He moved away a while ago, and we haven't texted since. One day, I guess. I had started designing a model of Festus that would link to my phone, laptop, and watch so I could bring him anywhere, but it was taking a bit of time. Bluetooth would do for now.

"Hey, Festus!" I reply cheerily as always, "I'm great. Can you sync the address that Jason sent me and pull up the directions?"

" _Done."_

In what seemed like 5 seconds, the directions were pulled up to the monitor, and we were on our way to the theater.

-Line Break :P-

 **JASON**

I dragged my hand down my face and rubbed my eyes. Currently, we were all arguing over what movie to watch.

"Why can't we watch _Shazam!?_ " Percy questioned aloud. Annabeth was rubbing her temples in annoyance, not ready to let up.

"I'll tell you one last time," she replied, nearly fuming, "You learn nothing from that mind-numbing movie. In Apollo 11, you actually learn facts about the rocket itself."

"I agree with her on this one, bro," I replied, shrugging, "I'd rather learn about something interesting than just another origin story. Isn't that right Piper?" She was quiet for a little bit, like she was making a decision.

"I'm gonna have to go with Percy on this one," she said, flattening out her shirt, "We learn all day, every day, why not do something fun, watch something a little mind-numbing?"

"Yes!" Percy cheered, raising his arms above his head. A few people looked, but no one really cared.

"You didn't win yet, Seaweed Brain."

"Shush, Wise Girl, let me have this."

"We're tied," I say, interrupting their squabble, "Who do we call?"

"Leo!" Percy exclaimed. Him and Leo we decent friends, and had very similar personalities, so I could see why he was the obvious choice. It was almost guaranteed that he would pick Shazam… Almost. What he didn't realize though, is that Leo loved machines more than he loved anything else, so he would be going with Apollo 11.

"Fine," Annabeth started, realizing the same thing as I, "text Leo to come see a movie with us."

And so I did.

-Line Break-

 **LEO**

I walked up to the theater with my hands in my pockets. I looked around at some of the local shops while I walked, but nothing interesting popped up. As I got closer, I saw two familiar blondes, and two familiar colourful eyed dorks next to them.

"Ladies, ladies," I say in a joking tone, "No need to fight, Leo McShizzle is here, and we can share."

Annabeth and Piper rolled their eyes, and the guys laughed with me.

"Dream on Leo," Piper said jokingly, "I'm into blondes.

"Oh," I say, feigning a confused look, "You thought I was talking to you? No no no sweet heart, I was talking to them." I pointed at both Percy and Jason, gaining a boisterous laugh out of Percy, while Jason snorted out his soda. Annabeth's and Pipers eyes both widened in shock. Well, Pipers did, I think Annabeth was more ready to fight than anything else.

Percy tried walking over to jokingly touch me when Annabeth pulled him back and held on to him for what seemed like dear life. It was now clear who the possessive one was.

"Awe," I say with a sickening sweet voice, "Percy, I think she likes you!" Percy chuckled then put his arm around Annabeth. Though I didn't like Annabeth as anything more than a friend, I was slightly jealous of them. They were both happy. I wanted that more than anything. _One day…_

"So, what are we watching?"

"Well," Jason started, glaring at Piper and Percy, "Right now it's between Shazam and Apollo 11. You're the deciding vote."

"I see," I said, scratching my chin, "Then I pick How To Train Your Dragon 3."

Everyone looks at me shocked, eyes wide. Annabeth looked especially shocked. I knew they would think I would pick Apollo 11 over anything, or that Shazam was a super hero movie so I'd pick that, but to be honest, Dragons were dope. I've loved Dragons since I was a child, and my mom and I would always read books about dragons. It's actually where I got the idea of Festus.

"W-What?" Annabeth asked, "You don't want to see Apollo 11?"

"Nah, I watched it already."

"But you also don't wanna see Shazam?" Percy asked curiously, yet also disappointed.

"No thanks, Billy Batson annoys me."

Everyone looked at each other and sighed. I just grinned then pulled them over to the ticket line, and we started talking about our weekends.

I gotta say, Jason had it rough. Being adopted is brutal, and then I promised to make him happy tomorrow during school with a prank. Piper and Jason had apparently been secretly dating for a while now – or so they thought – and just went public. They were cute to be honest.

I had zoned out by now, looking at Annabeth and Percy. Percy had his arm slung around Annabeth's shoulder, draping his hand over her arm, which Annabeth willingly held on to. They were definitely cute together, but I couldn't help but think Annabeth had a feeling of sadness in her eyes. It seemed like she was waiting for it all to fall apart. Percy on the other hand looked on top of the moon. He was ecstatic. I had to watch these too, or I'd be a godfather soon enough.

"What about when Percy started singing?" Jason mentioned, clapping Percy on the back.

"C'mon! You're the one who recommended it, can't we let it go?"

"I thought it was cute," Annabeth said, making Percy change his attitude.

"You want another one?" Percy asked, reaching for a guitar that wasn't there. Everyone simply laughed, and Annabeth slapped his chest. Leave it to Percy to get the group laughing.

I turned to look at the girl in front of us. She had caramel hair tied up into a messy bun, glasses, a clearly oversized knit sweater, and a pair of blue jeans on. It had a couple of rips on the legs, as well as a few black smudge marks. She was struggling with her debit card and the cashier was becoming angrier by the minute.

"I-I'm sorry," she stuttered, pulling out another card, only for it to also be declined.

"Listen, either pay now, or I get security," the cashier said sternly. The girl flinched from the yelling, and it pissed me off. I recognized the Cashier now that I looked at him, his name was Harold and he was a senior from my Workshop class. He was one of the better mechanics, but still not as good as me or Beck.

I walked up to the shy girl, and put a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to me with bright turquoise eyes. If I wasn't about to go to war with Harold, I would have stared at them for hou- Wait, what? You don't even know her name and you think that? Jeez…

I shook myself back to the present then looked at Harold. He smiled at me, recognizing me. Everyone in that class did. I turned in some crazy projects.

"Hey Leo," he greeted, "What's up?" I shrug giving him a sickly sweet smile.

"Oh you know, nothing," I say calmly, "Just curious as to why you're yelling at this hot mama right here?" I could feel Annabeth and Jason face palming while Percy and Piper laughed. I gave a small smirk. I turn to the left and saw the girl was blushing HEAVY. It's as if she was part tomato. I look back at Harold, and he just looks stunned.

"She's holding up the line," He says bitterly while looking at her, "She's making the other customers-"

"I don't care if Donald Dump is behind her," I interrupt abruptly, taking Harold by surprise, "That is no way to talk to a woman, or a customer at that."

"Well," Harold said, somewhat shocked, but still angry as he was before, "What are you gonna do about it? You might be a great mechanic, but at the end of the day, you're still scrawny and little."

"Are you threatening me?" I ask with a small smirk.

"Yea, and if you don't get your little brown butt out of here with this stupid girl, I'll kick you out myself."

Percy and Jason step forward, but I raise my hand, signaling them to stop. I pull out my phone and run a program, allowing me access to the security cameras of the theater.

"That's funny," I say, showing him the video. The audio repeats, and he goes pale, "because this video says otherwise. I wonder what MIT would say about their incoming student threatening two customers. It'd be a shame if this hit the net and a link was sent their way. Who knows, maybe the cops would come too?" I shrug.

"You wouldn't.

"You're right," I say, putting my phone away, "I won't if you stop harassing this girl, sell us our tickets, and behave in class."

"Fine," he says, grumpily, sitting down and printing out five tickets, "5 Tickets will be $28."

"You're forgetting one."

"Uh, there's only five of us Leo," Percy says curiously.

"Nah, we have a new friend here!" I say, putting my arm over the new girl, "What do you want to watch?"

"Y-you don't have to do that," she said quietly.

"Nah, don't worry about it," I say giving her a warm smile. She smiles back but still looks a little wary.

"How to Train your Dragon 3?"

"Chica we're gonna be great friends. What's your name by the way?"

"C-Calypso."

"Howdy, I'm Leo, Big Blue over there is Percy, Blonde and brainy is Annabeth, Superman over there is Jason, and feather girl is Piper."

"Very descriptive, Leo," Annabeth said with a small grin.

"He's not wrong though," Percy said through a chuckle.

"Nice t-to meet you all."

There was a chorus of hi's, hello's, and introductions being passed around. Calypso slowly started opening up in the group but was still a little shy. I stuck by her side the entire night, and she would often look back at me and offer warm glances. I had made a new friend, and I couldn't be happier.

Everyone had decided to grab a bite to eat first, we went into the theater and watched the movie without a hitch.

"That movie was great!" I exclaim when we walked out. Calypso was still next to me, Percy, Annabeth, Jason and Piper all following with us.

"I liked it," Piper said happily, cuddled into Jason's Varsity Jacket, "It was cute!"

"I can't complain," Annabeth shrugged.

"It was good until I lost my jacket," Jason grumbled. Piper chuckled and kissed him on the cheek, making his mood better.

"It's alright Jace," Percy consoled with a smile, "Annabeth took my favorite t-shirt last night."

"I did not!" She exclaimed with a red face, eyebrows furrowed.

"Let me see your backpack then."

"Screw you."

Everyone laughed, Annabeth included. It was around 7:30, and I wanted to get into the school system before tomorrow.

"Well, it was fun guys, but I'm gonna head home. The McShizzle needs his awesome sleep."

"How humble of you, Leo," Percy said with a smile.

"You know me," I say, laughing back at him, "The great Leo is always humble." Most of the group facepalms, and we start heading our separate ways. I start walking with Calypso, making sure she gets to her car safely.

"Thank you, Leo," she says kindly.

"For what?"

"For hanging out with me, for getting me in the movies, for being funny," she says with a small grin, her turquoise eyes shining in the sunset, "to name just a few."

"No need for thanks, Sunshine," I say with a bigger grin, "You're a dope person to hang around."

"Oh really?"

"Yea!"

"Then h-how about you take my number," she says, pulling out a pen and writing on my arm nervously, "and we hang out again?"

"Are you asking me out on a date?" I ask with a devious smile.

"I-I mean, it doesn't n-need to be a d-date-"

"Cal, calm down, I'm kidding, I'll text you later." I slip the pen from her hand start writing on her arm. We both look at our new arm "tattoo's," and laugh. We wave our goodbye's, and I get to my car. I start her up, and I make my way home. I couldn't tell you why, but I was happier than I've been in a while.

Oh yea, and I got into the school's server.

 **A/N:** **That's gonna cut it for today guys. I kinda wrote myself into a slight hole with this chapter while I was trying to develop Leo's character, but I promise the next chapter will be better. We see our Favourite red head again! School drama to the max! Sorry for the late upload lol.**

 **See y'all next chapter!**

 **-Rocke**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N:** **I'M SO SORRY, I SUCK AT SCHEDULES! I PROMISE I'M WORKING ON IT AHHH. ANYWAY, HERE'S CHAPTER 8!**

 **THANK YOU GUYS FOR YOUR ONGOING SUPPORT I LOVE YOU ALL!**

 **DISCLAIMER: DEY AREN'T MY CHARACTERS, I ONLY OWN THE PLOT**

 **PERCY**

It was about 6:30 and I was sitting outside of Annabeth's house on the hood of my car waiting for her. I was wearing a jean jacket with white wool lining the edges, a white and black baseball tee, a pair of dark slim jeans, and my black and white vans.

I had gotten her some flowers and decided to surprise her. I wanted to ask her to drive her to school, but I forgot, so why not make it a surprise? Only problem, I was scared out of my mind.

Would she like this? Would she hate it? Would I hate it? I wouldn't hate it, I want to do this. I pulled out my phone and checked the time. It was roughly 6:44. She said she always came out of the house at 6:45 on the dot. I had a minute to decide of I wanted to do this. I ran my hand through my hair and started pacing.

"What are you doing? Come on man, man up, you got this. Breath, breath, you got this."

"Percy?"

I did _not_ got this.

I turned around and saw Annabeth holding a cup of coffee, wearing black pants, and a white t-shirt that was tucked in. She had bags under her eyes, probably from long nights of studying, and frizzed up hair. To anyone else, she looked like a mess. To me? She looked amazing. The way her shirt was perfectly ironed, the way her pants cuffed up at the bottom, the way her converses were tied into little bunny ears. She was all around perfect. I on the other hand, forgot how do word good.

"Uhh… Duh.. H-Hi?"

"Percy it's 6:45," she said as if I was acting silly, "What're you doing here?"

"Oh!" I said turning around bending into the car pulling out a bouquet of flowers, and holding them out with straight arms. They were a bunch of white flowers, but the lady I bought them from said that she would love them. I wasn't sure and I felt sweat start to drop.

"Are… those for me?"

I nodded quickly, giving a small but wary grin. Annabeth walked over, grabbing them gently, and smelt them. She pulled them away and gave me a smile. She looks at me cheerily, then puts on a questioning look.

"Wait," she starts again, "Why are you here exactly?" It was at this point, I finally remembered how do word good.

"I wanted to give you a ride to school," I say finally speaking easily, "and hopefully I can continue doing so." I opened the door to my car, gesturing her to sit, and she laughed, but took a seat.

"We'll see," is all she said. And with that, we were on our way to school.

-You know what kind of break this is-

We walked into school together, our hands glued together like a kids take home project, neither of us letting go. Her bright blonde hair bounced as she walked, finally defrizzing. We take turns at our lockers, then make our way to the groups table. Jason was there, but he looked like he had been sleeping on a rock, but content. Piper was asleep with her head on his lap. Leo was talking to Jason about a homework assignment while fiddling with a piece of metal he had in his hand. We sat down and greeted the group, then split off into our own conversation, unaware of what was happening behind us…

 **RACHEL**

I looked at them from the lockers. I was beyond angry. I could kill her if I really wanted to. I could kill him! They weren't supposed to get together. I did everything in my power to stop it, but no, life spits in my face. I picked up my bag and went to my locker, putting my books back into it. I wouldn't it need it today.

I walked back towards the group to set my plan in motion…

 **PERCY**

"And then Leo pulled out his phone with a recording of what he just said!" Jason was retelling to Luke and Thalia. They were engrossed in the story. It wasn't everyday our Spanish elf acted all big and tough.

"No way!" Thalia said laughing, "You did that, Leo?"

"I don't like bullies," he said briefly, sipping on a chocolate milk, acting nonchalant, but we all knew him better. We knew he was soaking it in.

"Dang dude, I give you props."

"Thanks Luke," he said fist bumping said blonde. That's when she walked up.

"Hey guys," Rachel said sweetly. She was wearing a green long sleeve, blue jeans, and green vans. Her red hair was ever frizzy. Normally, she wasn't this happy in the mornings. It was a little odd to see her so cheery.

"Hey Rach," Jason greeted slightly questioningly, "Where's your bag?"

"At home," she said rubbing her head, "I accidentally slept through most of my alarms and ran out without it on accident. Speaking of accident's, Annabeth, can I discuss something with you?" Everyone sweat dropped at that. Either it was an insult, or it was a reference to something that happened between them, we were unsure. What we did know, is that Annabeth visibly tensed at Rachel's beckon.

I grabbed her thigh, but she shook her head. She stood up and went to talk with Rachel. Of what, I wasn't sure, but I trusted her. I started talking to Jason, but kept my eyes on where Annabeth and Rachel walked off to.

+Do I really need to explain this?+

 **ANNABETH**

"Rachel, I'm not doing it."

"What was that, Annie?" she asked angrily, "Because it sounds a lot like you did exactly what I told you not to do." She did have a point, but her demands were unreasonable at best.

"I don't care," I said, standing my ground, "I'm not breaking up with him. Why can't you see that we're happy?"

"Oh I see it," she replied simply, "I just don't like it!"

"Well get used to it!"

"Then get used to this picture floating around!" Rachel held up a picture that I thought my parents had scrubbed from the world. We paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to get it off every website, every news outlet, all of it. We even moved to New York to escape it all. There was no way this could be real.

I lunged for the picture, knocking Rachel down, taking it in the process. With it in my hands, I tore it at every angle I could, making sure it could in no way be recognized. That's when Rachel started laughing. I looked at here only to see 7 more copies in her hand.

"You didn't think I'd bait you with my 'only' leverage, did you?"

I saw my world shatter. Percy would leave me, Thalia wouldn't trust me, the school would laugh.

"By Wednesday, the whole school will know about this! Good luck, Annie."

And with that, she walked off. I watched her walk away into the crowd, disappearing. I pushed back tears, and walked to the bathroom. I took deep breaths for what felt like hours, but in actuality, it was about 5 minutes. After I stopped crying, I started fuming. I was angry now. I started plotting and thinking. That's when it hit me. I had one plan, and boy was it a Hail Mary…

-Line blah-

The day carried on like normal, I acted fine, but I could tell Percy was aware that I wasn't completely fine. I put it off and wouldn't tell him anything, and kept to myself. Class had finished, and we were walking out. I looked around until I found the groups own Spanish elf.

"I'll be right back, Perce," I said, rushing off.

"O-Okay?"

I felt bad for sprinting away, but this was important. He couldn't find out, absolutely not.

"Leo!" I exclaimed. He jumped and turned with his hands in blades, looking ready to fight. That is, until he saw me.

"Oh, it's you. What's up Brainiac?"

"I need a favor that you can't tell anyone about."

"Sorry Annabeth, I ain't no homewrecker."

"What? No, I need you to hack into someone's computer to get rid of a picture."

"Oh, haha, yea of course. Whose computer is it?" he questioned curiously. That's when I froze. Rachel was a friend of this group, this is basically treason, asking him to betray someone on the group. I took a deep breath.

"It's… Rachel."

Leo went from curious to confused. He looked like someone had smacked him in the face.

"What? Why?" he interrogated. He looked ready to snap, to put me in my place for trying to meddle with another group member.

"It's… Personal…"

"No," he said shaking his head, "If I do this, I need to know why, you're not sending me in blind."

"She's blackmailing me with a picture from my past," I said, not wanting to reveal too much, "I need it gone before she shows it to everyone. Please, Leo, I'll do anything."

Leo was quiet for a long time. It looked like he was fighting with the idea inside of his head for a while. He kept going back and forth, trying to decide if I was telling the truth or not. For a second, I thought that my last chance, my hail Mary, was about to fall through my grasp.

"Fine," he finally said in a hushed tone, "But if I find out you're lying to me, I will tell everyone what you're having me do."

"Deal." I replied hurriedly. Leo nodded, then closed his eyes. When he opened them, he was back to his normal self, happy as can be.

"Come over tonight at around 6:30, yea? We'll sort it out then!" he said, giving me a grin, then making his way to his pick-up. I gave a deep sigh, then walked back to Percy.

"Welcome back, Wise Girl," he said with a tired expression, but a small grin nonetheless. I gave him a similar smile and pecked his cheek. We walked to his car, and drove home, forgetting about the events for the day.

-L B-

It had just hit 6:30 and I rung Leo's doorbell. When the door opened, a big man with grease stains on his overalls and hands opened the door.

"Oh, you're not my parts," he said upon lying his sights on me.

"I'm sorry?" I asked confused.

"Sorry," he said with a chuckle, "I ordered some parts for a project and I thought that you might be them being delivered. I guess that's what happens when you assume."

"Sorry to disappoint sir," I say with a chuckle, "I'm actually here to see Leo."

"Ah," he said with a smile, "In that case, I'm his father, Hephaestus Valdez. His room is upstairs on the left." He held out his hand for me to shake.

"Nice to meet you Mr. Valdez," I said shaking his hand, "I'm Annabeth Chase." I walked past him and upstairs. When I opened Leo's door, I was surprised to see it organized. There were tools on the wall, and a giant console for his computer.

"Annabeth?" Leo asked aloud, not looking up from his tool bench.

"Hey Leo."

"Be with you in a sec." It looked like Leo was soldering some metal, but I couldn't be sure. I decided to take a seat at his desk, looking at his beast of a computer. I was a giant tower with lots of wires and hardware and components in it.

"Alright," he said, plopping down in a chair next to me, "Lets get cracking." He began to get to work. His fingers were like lightning on his keyboard, flying through the letters. "I already got her IP, and broke through her firewall, now it's just finding the picture."

We were searching through files for what felt like 45 minutes when we can across a zipped folder titled ' _Annabeth.'_ When we tried to open it, it asked us for a password. Leo began plugging a code into a command prompt to get it to open, which worked within 2 minutes. Inside the file, there was a picture, and a video. I assumed the picture was what I thought it was, but I had no idea what the video could be.

"Open them both," I told Leo, rising out of my seat slightly. I had to know what they were

"You sure?"

"More or less."

When the picture opened, it was the last thing I expected. Instead of what I wanted to delete, it was a picture of a troll face. I was in utter shock. My play had been called. I played into her hands. The video loaded moments later, showing Rachel with a wicked grin.

" _Hey Annie and Leo,"_ she said in a sing song voice, making both of us shiver, " _I thought you'd try and get this deleted. What a shame that I don't have it backed up on my computer. If it's that important to you, I guess I won't release it on Wednesday. You obviously don't want me to."_

"She's lying."

" _I'll do it on Tuesday instead. I hope you like your last few days of being social. Tomorrow morning, everyone is going to know your dirty little secret. Percy will feel betrayed, Thalia with abandon you, Luke won't be able to stand sitting next to you. Good luck, Annie."_

I shattered. My world was **Torn** in half. Leo was trying to talk to me, but I couldn't hear anything.

"Thank you, Leo, but I think I'm going to leave." I picked up my things quickly, then started for the door. I pulled out the keys for my dad's car, and got in. Before I could get away from the house, Leo ran up to the car.

"Annabeth, wait!"

"Have a good night," I said, peeling out of his driveway. I drove home in tears. I went inside and my dad saw me. He looked like he wanted to ask what was wrong, but I was already running upstairs closing my door. My night continued on a streak of crying until I fell asleep.

-Day Break?-

 **PERCY**

I woke up to a text from Annabeth saying that she was gonna drive to school today. I asked why but she wouldn't budge. I didn't want to push further, so I let it be, and told her I'd see her in class. When I got to school, people were looking at me curiously, and then would split into their own convos. I was equally confused, but I didn't care. I went to my locker. I was spinning my combo in, when a bunch of varsity football players started laughing at me. Now I was really confused. I hadn't worn my lucky underwear, so there was no way for them to have known about that. I went to finish putting my combo in when Leo ran over, and put himself between my and my locker.

"Well good morning to you too, Flamo."

"H-Hey, Perce," he started with a small grin, but nervous look, "How's it goin?"

"Oh you know," I said, looking around, "trying to get into my locker."

"Ahh, well, how about we do something else, like go this way, and forget about your locker?" Something was up. I looked around, and people were holding pieces of paper. Correction, the same piece of paper. They all had the same thing.

"Sure," I said, willing to detach from my locker to figure out what was going on, "I'll come back later." Leo gives me a devilish grin, and starts walking towards the cafeteria. It's around then that I see the white paper in his back pocket. The paper looked similar to everyone else's. Without thinking, I plucked it out of his pocket and opened it.

"Percy, wait!" Leo shouted. It was too late though, I already opened the paper, and what I saw was shocking, terrifying even. There she was, sitting there in court, grey patch of hair. There were dates, and examples of trials, court dates, and a brief summary of what had happened. I was confused, and my head was spinning. Sure, it was a new relationship, and I wasn't expecting to know everything about her, but _this_ is huge.

I ran through the hall to get to the front of the school when I saw it. On the wall there was a mosaic of different pieces of the story from different news outlets. I stopped dead in my tracks. It looked like an art piece. But it couldn't be just any high schooler. This was an expose in disguise as art.

"Oh my god," a familiar voice said aloud. I turn around and see none other than my girlfriend. We make eye contact, and she turns and runs.

"Annabeth!" I yell as I give **chase** , "Wait!"

She runs out to the parking lot , and I'm mere steps behind her. We get to her car when she looks at me, crying.

"Percy, please," she pleads, begging at this point, "leave me alone."

"This can't be true, right?"

"So what if it is?!"

I was taken aback. She saw this, shook her head, then got into her car. She locked the doors, and drove off as quick as she could, taking consideration not to hit me though. I was sad, angry, worried, I couldn't fit into one emotion. I was going to get to the bottom of this, I had to know.

I walked inside, a fury building up inside of me. I tore down every paper, got as many as I could from everyone, and trashed them. I was going to fix this, if it was the last thing I was going to do.

"Hey Percy," Rachel said cheerily, sneaking up on me, "It's a shame about what came up about Annabeth huh?"

That's when it clicked. This was planned, and looked like a atrocious masterpiece. Only person I knew had the skill to do this, and was as meticulous as Annabeth, and that was a certain red haired girl.

"You," I said, shock evident in my voice, "You did this?"

"Duh, I'm surprised you didn't realize sooner."

"How could you?"

"How could I?" she countered, stunned, "She hid this from you and your mad at me?"

"It wasn't your story to tell!"

"Well someone had to, and she wouldn't!" Rachel said practically yelling, "I did this for you, can't you see?"

"For me?" I say taken a back, but still angry, "Not only did you get my own girlfriend to run from me, I don't know if she's coming back, or if she'll want to talk to me. So thanks, Rachel, you've helped me so much."

"Why is this so hard-"

"No," I said, putting my hands up, "I'm done. Have a good life Rachel and stay out of me and Annabeth's."

"What?" she said, confused, "Percy, wait-"

"No!" I shouted, "Did you ever think of who you hurt from this? About how this would affect her? You're selfish, and I don't need a friend that only thinks for herself."

I walked away, leaving Rachel sputtering. And that was the last I heard from her all day. I had to sort this out, I just needed to find a way…

-Tragedy Break-

 **ANNABETH**

I was sitting at a park bench, crying my eyes out. My life was pathetic. I couldn't stand up for myself then, and I couldn't now. I pulled out my phone and looked at my lock screen. Unbeknownst to Percy and I, Thalia had taken a picture of our kiss at the theater. That girl could be a professional photographer. Me and Percy were mere silhouettes, but the stage was lit up behind us, so you could still understand what was happening.

I was going to miss that dork. I planned to tell my mom tonight about transferring schools, but I hadn't gotten to it just yet.

I was about to put my phone away, when I felt it vibrate again. It was Percy again. I waited out the phone call only to see my screen flooded with texts.

 _ **Seaweed Brain~**_ : _Wise girl? Are you okay?_

 _ **Seaweed Brain~**_ : _Hello? Annabeth, please answer me._

 _ **Seaweed Brain~**_ : _I don't care if its true Annabeth please just call and text me back._

 _ **Seaweed Brain~**_ : _Hello?_

 _ **Seaweed Brain~**_ : _I love you…_

I closed my eyes and felt a tear slowly slide down my face. I took a deep breath, then slid my phone back into my pocket. I looked back over the pond in front of me and tried to think about other things.

-Time Skip-

It was 7:30 at night, and we ate dinner. I didn't talk to my mom about transferring yet, but I planned to after dinner. That was, until I got another text.

 _ **Seaweed Brain~**_ : _I know you're reading these Annabeth._

 _ **Seaweed Brain~**_ : _Come outside, I need to talk with you_

My heart sank. He was here? Why? I opened the text and started to type when another one came in.

 _ **Seaweed Brain~**_ : _Either you come out or I come in._

I swallowed the lump in my throat and took a shaky breath. I collected my thoughts and made my way out. When I opened the door, I saw Percy leaning against his car with a blue and grey ¾ tee on, as well as black jeans and matching Vans. He was wearing a hat which was new, but I decided to move past that. He was still looking at his phone typing up a fury.

"Why are you here, Perce?"

His eyes shot up. He looked at me and it was then that I really took in how he looked. The shine that was normally in his eyes was dim, he had worry plastered all over his face. When he saw me, he bolted, dropping his phone, embracing me in a hug. That's when it hit. I felt the warmth of his arms around me. I smelt his scent of ocean water and a hint of chlorine. I felt him grab on tight as if I was the last life jacket on a sinking ship, clinging for dear life, never to let go. I felt the sadness rolling off of him, and all I could do was cry.

I clung on to him and started crying. I can't tell you how long we were there, but it felt like an eternity. Everything stopped around us. It was just me and him. Then we broke apart. He pulled back, but kept his hands clinging onto my shoulders gently.

"No matter what happened in the past," he says, voice shaking a little bit, "I will always love you Annabeth Chase."

"I should have been more forth coming," I said, sadly, "I lied to you and created this mess. I'm damaged goods, Percy! You deserve someone better, someone who can stand up for themselves, or someone who won't lie about their appearance to you."

"The hair?" he asked, a small but caring smirk on his face, leaving me only to nod, "You really think that I like you just because of how you look? Annabeth, you're a sarcastic, smart, funny, spitfire who doesn't take flak from anyone. That's why I wanted to be with you. The looks are a definite bonus, but not the main reason. The way your eyes shine when you look at buildings, mentally deconstructing them in your head, the way your eyebrows crinkle when you read, the way your smile shines when you have that first sip of coffee. Annabeth, I live for all of your quirks. Besides, I think the grey hair is cool. It's like a highlight."

I was blown away. He was too good of a person to be real.

"And to prove that I like the grey hair," he said, stepping back ever so slightly. He took off his hat, and let his jet black hair fall forward. Correction, _mostly_ jet black hair. A tuft of hair was now grey, falling forward for everyone to see…

I'm not typically a fighter. I like busywork, and I try to keep to myself, only pushing after I've been pushed. Why fight when I could be designing buildings? I only took challenges I knew I would win. Everything was calculated, I left very little to chance, or Lady Luck.

But with him? Calculated or not, I knew that we could overcome any challenge…

 **A/N: Little short, but I had to put something out. So sorry for the delay, lifes been rough. I promise to work on uploading more, but I won't give out specific dates anymore. Hope y'all enjoy this HELLA delayed chapter, and I'll (hopefully) post again soon!**

 **-Rocke**


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